Pricing note
Height
Height affects first impressions, earnings, leadership, and attraction.
Research using the British Household Panel Survey found an association of roughly 1.5% higher wages per additional inch of height. Height is also associated with occupational sorting and the way confidence and authority are perceived.
The quiz uses separate curves for the two scoring tracks rather than paying a flat amount per inch. Both have a preferred range, and the price falls at the extremes.
Score: the male track peaks near 6′5″ at +$100,000; the female track peaks near 5′10″ at +$110,000.
Do women like taller men?
British and Polish researchers studying more than 4,400 Polish men found that fathers were, on average, about three centimeters taller than men who remained childless. The researchers argued that height plays a meaningful role in sexual selection and partner choice.
The pattern weakened during the postwar era, when the shortage of men changed the dating market and shorter men became fathers more often. It took decades for taller men to regain the statistical lead. Availability can override preference when the market changes enough.
Are tall people treated differently?
People rarely admit to treating a tall person differently, but height—especially in men—can trigger positive associations with confidence, authority, competence, and leadership. Those associations show up in pay, promotion, and who reaches the top of large organizations.
In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell reported that CEOs in a sample of Fortune 500 companies averaged just under six feet. At the time, about 14.5% of American men were six feet or taller, compared with 58% of the CEOs in his sample. Only 3.9% of adult men were 6′2″ or taller, but 30% of the CEOs reached that mark.
His sample found only ten CEOs among the tens of millions of American men below 5′6″. That does not mean height causes ability, but it is strong evidence that decision-makers associate height with traits they reward.
Height has also been common among presidents. Of the first 43 U.S. presidents, only five were clearly below the average height for men in their era, with Benjamin Harrison the last of that group. Abraham Lincoln, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, Thomas Jefferson, and Franklin Roosevelt were among the tallest relative to their contemporaries.
How the height curve works
The male track’s preferred range centers on 6′2″ through 6′6″ and peaks at 6′5″. Very short heights receive the largest penalty; the score also falls once height moves beyond the preferred range. The female track peaks at 5′10″, stays strong from roughly 5′8″ through 6′1″, and declines at both extremes.
Height is scored only when an age is provided. That prevents adolescent measurements from being treated as final adult height.