Tall and Short Make a Match

SmolChlo

@skysayl picked up on that too Hookup with the shorties and wife the tall one? Made me wonder if their insinuating that some people bury and ignore their genuine preferences for whatever looks good or is deemed acceptable by society. Idk maybe I’m reaching but I’ve seen and have had this discussion a few times

foreverlurk

@SmolChlo said in Tall and Short Make a Match:

Made me wonder if their insinuating that some people bury and ignore their genuine preferences for whatever looks good or is deemed acceptable by society.

This behaviour sounds adjacent to the Halo effect, which associates traits like being fat means you’re lazy, being tall means you’re powerful, being beautiful means you’re a good person.

Consequences of that unconscious tendency? There’s the height wage gap, where tall people make more money on average. There’s the beauty card that let you get away with almost everything. That sort of things might explain why some people prefer to have a taller mate (and, consequently, offspring).

littlest-lily

I do wonder how the data was collected (maybe the link discussed it, I didn’t dig into it). Someone might not have thought to themselves that they’d want different heights for short and long term relationships. But if someone is filling out a questionnaire that asks for a partner’s ideal height and then it went “but what if it was short term?” I could see the person go “eh, what the heck, might as well go nuts” and not put all that much thought into it. I could be wrong though!

Olo

I think dating apps have dramatically affected the way we view “preferences.”

miss-lillipants

@littlest-lily said:

But if someone is filling out a questionnaire that asks for a partner’s ideal height and then it went “but what if it was short term?”

Yes, I am curious about how the question(s) was posed/worded and how they’re interpreted by both responders and the researchers.

Here are the results from an Australian 2019 survey with over 1000 respondents (I’m guessing all male because it was on male beauty). Of those who responded with an opinion, most found 5’5-5’9" as attractive. But the question was “When thinking of beauty, which height do you consider ideal for women?” Which doesn’t mention or overtly suggest the dating or preferential aspect, i.e. you can find features attractive but you wouldn’t necessarily prefer or date a person with those features. Maybe it prefaces in the overarching survey, I don’t know. In saying that, I think it’s a relatively safe assumption to make for most, but can still make for fraught interpretations.