Abstract
Two recent studies have shown a relationship between male height and number of offspring in contemporary developed-world populations. One of them argues as a result that directional selection for male tallness is both positive and unconstrained. This paper uses data from a large and socially representative national cohort of men who were born in Britain in March 1958. Taller men were less likely to be childless than shorter ones. They did not have a greater mean number of children. If anything, the pattern was the reverse, since men from higher socioeconomic groups tended to be taller and also to have smaller families. However, clear evidence was found that men who were taller than average were more likely to find a long-term partner, and also more likely to have several different long-term partners. This confirms the finding that tall men are considered more attractive and suggests that, in a noncontracepting environment, they would have more children. There is also evidence of stabilizing selection, since extremely tall men had an excess of health problems and an increased likelihood of childlessness. The conclusion is that male tallness has been selected for in recent human evolution but has been constrained by developmental factors and stabilizing selection on the extremely tall.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barker, D., C. Osmond, and J. Golding 1990 Height and Mortality in the Counties of England and Wales. Annals of Human Biology 17:1–6.
Borgerhoff Mulder, M. 1987 On Cultural and Reproductive Success: Kipsigis Evidence. American Anthropologist 89:617–634.
2000 Optimizing Offspring: The Quantity-Quality Tradeoff in Agropastoral Kipsigis. Evolution and Human Behaviour 21:391–410.
Buss, D. 1989 Sex Differences in Human Mate Preferences. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 12:1–49.
Butler, N., and D. Bonham 1963 Perinatal Mortality. Edinburgh: E&S Livingstone.
Bynner, J., N. Butler, E. Ferri, P. Shepherd, and K. Smith 2001 The Design and Conduct of the 1999–2000 Surveys of the National Child Development Study and the 1970 British Cohort Study. London: Institute of Education, Centre for Longitudinal Studies.
Cernerud, L. 1995 Height and Social Mobility. Scandinavian Journal of Social Medicine 23:28–31.
Chamberlain, G. 2001 Maternal Mortality. In Turnbull’s Obstetrics, G. Chamberlain and P. Steer, eds. Pp. 741–752. London: Churchill Livingstone.
Chatterjee, S., N. Das, and P. Chatterjee 1999 The Estimation of the Heritability of Anthropometric Measures. Applied Human Sciences 18:1–7.
Damon, A., and R. B. Thomas 1967 Fertility and Physique: Height, Weight and Ponderal Index. Human Biology 39:5–13.
Feingold, A. 1982 Do Taller Men Have Prettier Girlfriends? Psychological Reports 50:810.
Ferri, E. 1993 Life at 33: The Fifth Follow-up of the National Child Development Study. London: National Children’s Bureau, City University, Economic and Social Research Council.
Fisher, R. 1930 The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Fogelman, K. 1983 Growing Up in Great Britain: Collected Papers from the National Child Development Study. London: Macmillan.
Gillis, J. S., and W. E. Avis 1980 The Male-Taller Norm in Mate Selection. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 6:396–401.
Heliovaara, M., M. Makela, and P. Knekt 1991 Determinants of Sciatica and Low-back Pain. Spine 16:608–614.
Hensley, W. E. 1994 Height as a Basis for Interpersonal Attraction. Adolescence 29:469–474.
Hensley, W. E., and R. Cooper 1987 Height and Occupational Success: A Review and Critique. Psychological Reports 60:843–849.
Jackson, L. A., and K. S. Ervin 1992 Height Stereotypes of Women and Men—The Liabilities of Shortness for Both Sexes. Journal of Social Psychology 132:433–445.
Johnson, A., C. Mercer, B. Erens, A. Copas, S. McManus, K. Wellings, K. Fenton, C. Korovessis, W. Macdowall, K. Nanchahal, S. Purdon, and H. Field 2001 Sexual Behaviour in Britain: Partnerships, Practices, and HIV Risk Behaviours. Lancet 358:1835–1842.
Kenrick, D. T., and R. C. Keefe 1992 Age Preferences in Mates Reflect Sex Differences in Human Reproductive Strategies. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 15:75–133.
Michaud, D. S., E. Giovannuci, W. C. Willett, G. A. Colditz, M. J. Stampfer, and C. S. Fuchs 2001 Physical Activity, Obesity, Height and the Risk of Pancreatic Cancer. Journal of the American Medical Association 286:921–929.
Mueller, U., and A. Mazur 2001 Evidence of Unconstrained Directional Selection for Male Tallness. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 50:302–311.
Pawlowski, B., R. I. M. Dunbar, and A. Lipowicz 2000 Tall Men Have More Reproductive Success. Nature 403:156.
Peck, M. N. 1992 Childhood Environment, Intergenerational Mobility and Adult Health: Evidence from Swedish Data. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 46:71–74.
Peck, M. N., and O. Lundberg 1995 Short Stature as an Effect of Economic and Social Conditions in Childhood. Social Science & Medicine 41:733–738.
Pérusse, D. 1994 Mate Choice in Modern Societies: Testing Evolutionary Hypotheses with Behavioral Data. Human Nature 5:255–278.
Shepperd, J. A., and A. J. Strathman 1989 Attractiveness and Height: The Role of Stature in Dating Preference, Frequency of Dating, and Perceptions of Attractiveness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 15:617–627.
Shors, A. R., C. Solomon, A. McTiernan, and E. White 2001 Melanoma Risk in Relation to Height, Weight and Exercise (United States). Cancer Causes and Control 12:599–606.
Silventoinen, K., J. Kaprio, and E. Lahelma 2000 Genetic and Environmental Contributions to the Association between Body Height and Educational Attainment. Behavior Genetics 30:477–485.
Silventoinen, K., E. Lahelma, and O. Rahkonen 1999 Social Background, Adult Body-height and Health. International Journal of Epidemiology 28:911–918.
Vetta, A. 1975 Fertility, Physique and Intensity of Selection. Human Biology 47:283–293.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The National Child Development Study is carried out by the researchers of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education, London. The data are housed at the Data Archive of the University of Essex, from where they were obtained under license for the present study. I am grateful to Paul Preece for his assistance with data processing, and to Benjamin Campbell and two anonymous referees for invaluable advice which has, I hope, improved the quality of this paper.
Daniel Nettle is lecturer in biological psychology at the Open University. With a first degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in biological anthropology, his work has been concerned with the application of evolutionary models to such topics as language (e.g., Linguistic Diversity, Oxford University Press, 1999) and individual differences (Strong Imagination, Oxford University Press, 2001).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nettle, D. Height and reproductive success in a cohort of british men. Hum Nat 13, 473–491 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-002-1004-7
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-002-1004-7