Tall stories
Posted: Tuesday 29 September 2009
There is no hope! I'm doomed to a life of misery, all because I am, as my mother never tires of telling me, "knee high to a grasshopper". That translates as "I am short", to those of you not familiar with my mother's turn of phrase.
According to a study widely reported in the media, people who are taller are more likely to report that they lead happier lives. Not having a spare US$30 to purchase the paper published in Economics and Human Biology, I turned to NHS Choices' health news to see what they had to say.
They summarise that men and women who reported that their lives were the worst possible were more than 2cm and 1.3cm below average height respectively. "However, those people who reported that their lives were the best possible were also shorter than average."
The study found that the link between happiness and height was "almost entirely explained by the positive association between height and both income and education."
As it turns out, this study isn't that much different to many previous studies that show that taller people are more likely to be in better paid jobs.
Phew! I'm going to be unhappy not because I'm short but because being short means I'm more poorly paid. Oh. Wait...
Bridget O'Connell, Head of Information
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