The taller a person is, the more likely he or she is to support conservative political positions, support a conservative party and actually vote for conservative politicians, according to a new study using data from Britain.
"If you take two people with nearly identical characteristics - except one is taller than the other - on average the taller person will be more politically conservative," said Sara Watson, co-author of the study and assistant professor of political science at The Ohio State University.
The researchers found that a one-inch increase in height increased support for the Conservative Party by 0.6 percent and the likelihood of voting for the party by 0.5 percent.
If the report is right, and this is a genuine, measurable phenomenon, I must admit I hadn't spotted it. I've just flicked through my mental Rolodex of friends and acquaintances and I'm not sure I can see any particular correlation. Yes, the two tallest people in the BBC news room when I worked there (I was one of them) were the two of the most right-wing wing people there - but the third was the second smallest female producer. (The taller the woman, the more conservative - only the tendency is slightly less marked than in men.) Some of my most vertically-challenged friends are Conservative or UKIP voters, and supported Brexit. And, of course, I've known any number of socialists well over six foot. But that's all anecdotal - on the whole, I see no reason to doubt Ohio State University's research data - especially as it doesn't appear to be politically motivated. The really interesting question is why there might be a correlation between one's height and one's politics.
Presumably a Briton who supports a conservative party and votes for conservative politicians displays a preference for the free market (within reason), competition, a smaller state, lower taxes, the rule of law, a strong defence, the right to pass their possessions on to their children (or to whoever they damn well want), and the opportunity to exploit their talent or luck without unduly harming society or the environment, but also without undue hindrance from egalitarians seeking to impose equal outcomes. Those of us on the Right can argue about where we are on the spectrum on each of these issues - but if you're strongly opposed to any of those attitudes, you're probably a left-winger, and should currently be deciding whether to support Jeremy Corbyn or Owen Smith or Tim Farron (who he? Ed).
So why would taller people tend to support conservative/right-wing principles?
It might be that height lends one confidence: one feel less threatened and therefore more confident of standing on one's own two feet.
Tall people tend to earn more on average (well, a bit), so they have more to protect, and therefore don't see why it should be taken away from them by the state to be passed on to (often undeserving) strangers.
As the vertically advantaged are supposed to offer physical protection to the vertically challenged, perhaps the instinct to protect one's country tends to be more developed. Given that we're less likely to be attacked or mugged, perhaps we more readily appreciate the benefit of possessing a strong deterrent.
When it comes to choosing someone for a task, it's harder for the behemoth to hide himself in a crowd, so we tend to get picked on to "volunteer", which may instil the habit of doing one's duty. Similarly, self-protective behaviour that would be seen as sensible in a smaller person can more easily be viewed as cowardice in us - it's harder to back away from confrontation when you're big, so, again, doing one's duty becomes a habit.
Large people (in Britain at least) tend not to use their natural size advantage to barge their way to the front of queues, which (experience tells us) little people do. A lot. If we do it, we're accused of being big bullies, so we tend not to. (Bar staff are particularly adept at ignoring the large person who's been waiting patiently to be served for twenty minutes, while happily tending to the needs of the short person standing at the back of the crush.) These experiences teach us self-restraint - and if we follow the rules and behave courteously towards others, we don't see why everyone else shouldn't.
Watch tall people scrunch themselves up on public transport and the way they make sure they're not obscuring the view of people sitting behind them in cinemas and theatres. We learn our obligations not to interfere with other people's rights early on.
Height has its disadvantages, of course - we tend to die earlier, finding clothes that fit is a nightmare, we are often uncomfortable in man-made environments inevitably tailored to smaller people, and many of our fellow-citizens assume that our bulk means that we are both aggressive and stupid (for some odd reason, we are also the chosen target for beggars and chuggers). But height's advantages aren't to be sneered at: people in business tend to remember having met us, we get offered better jobs, and - as one TV News colleague complained - "people only trust you because you're big." Given that we have enough disadvantages to cope with, we're buggered if we're going to be denied our precious advantages by mean-spirited levellers determined to cut us down to size.
Before those who are 5' 8" and under start howling in protest, let me assure them again that I do not recognise the picture painted by Ohio State's research. If anything, the shorter my friends are, the braver, more assertive, cleverer, livelier and funnier they tend to be - and they're not noticeably less conservative than chums over six foot (if anything, a bit more so, actually). I'm just trying to figure out why - if this report is on to something - Bigger Means Righter. It has to be a question of nurture rather than nature: whatever natural political tendencies we're born with - and I believe temperament plays a major role in one's political preferences - size can only play its part through our personal, everyday experiences.
If anyone has explanations which are more convincing than the ones I've come up with, please let me know.
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