Research of 9,700 individuals gives another reason why conservatives and liberals might not see eye to eye: their height.
In a paper published in the current edition of the British Journal of Political Science, researchers have found that an inch in height adds a 0.6 percent chance of conservatism. The finding is twice as prominent for men than women.
Based on prior research, the finding makes sense.
Contemporary and anthropological studies have compared paychecks, health records, even bone length in ancient societies to determine that taller people tend to make more. And the wealthy, statistically speaking, tend to embrace conservative ideals.
But the science of height and politics has not been as widely studied.
At 5 feet tall, the inquisitive Sara Watson always wondered, what’s up with that?
“It always caught my attention because it seemed a little unfair,” said Watson, an Ohio State University political professor who published the study with Raj Arunachalam, a senior economist at Bates White LLC.
The research drew on 17 years of data collected on 5,000 British families that participated in a survey that simultaneously tracked height, income and political leaning.
Controlling for factors like religion, geography, education level, marital status and others that tend to shape political ideology, the study showed that the likelihood of embracing conservatism shot up twice as fast with each inch of height for men, who saw a 0.8 percent increase, than women, whose conservatism had a 0.4 percent increase.
The two-part study on the political impacts of money and height also found that growing an inch taller equated to an annual pay increase of 350 pounds (or about $665).
The phenomenon has no apparent effect on the very short or tall, though. Increased or decreased height had no additional impact on political ideology for those shorter than 62 inches or taller than 73 inches, a height at which being taller correlates as much or more with health problems as it does with making more money, Watson noted.
While the study draws no conclusion as to why taller people make more money, the theory is that there is bias in hiring and promoting or a perception that height indicates strength. An even more obscure hypothesis, Watson said, is that taller people may have higher cognitive abilities as a result of better prenatal nutrition.
The findings, Watson stressed, do not apply to all. She refused to divulge whether the study accurately sorted her to the lower and more liberal end of the height spectrum.
“It’s true on average that if you had to make a guess about my political preferences,” Watson said, “a person of my height would be more likely to hold less conservative political perspectives.”
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug.