Why Women Want Tall Men

Altezza mezza bellezza, as the Italians say—height is half of beauty.

Ours it seems is a culture that valorizes the tall and belittles, as it were, the short.  Being tall is also associated with career success: in fact it has been estimated that a person who is six feet tall is likely to earn around $166,000 more over the course of a 30-year career than someone who is five foot four. The taller you are, for instance, the more likely you are to go on to higher education. This is true even after controlling for cognitive ability, suggesting that some kind of subtle—indeed unconscious—bias may be operating among educators.

For males in particular, height seems to be linked to greater happiness and self-esteem. With psychological advantages stemming in part from the pervasive tendency to associate height with power. That tendency is embedded in our language: we look up to people we consider superior; those without influence are the little people.

Evolutionarily speaking, one might argue that a tall man would be preferred by women because, if you follow the argument, he’ll be stronger and better able to ward off physical treats to his family. In the beast-eats-man world of primitive civilizations, this argument might have a rationale. However, unless taller equals stronger, faster, and smarter even in this scenario, height wouldn’t seem to offer any particularly unique advantage.

In an intriguing 2013 study, Dutch psychologists Gert Stulp, Abraham Buunk, and Thomas Pollet followed up on some of their earlier work on male height to find out more about what leads women to prefer those lanky guys. They were also curious to learn how and why people are satisfied with their own height.

Stulp and his colleagues sought to understand not only who prefers whom in terms of height, but also how people feel about their own height. The participants in this study were 650 first-year heterosexual psychology students who received course credit for completing the survey. They estimated their own height, and reported on their sex, ethnicity (most were Dutch or German), and reported on their sexual orientation. The rest of the questions, simply enough, asked them to report on their relationship status, the height of their partner, the satisfaction with their own height, and their satisfaction with the height of their partners.

The results on partner preferences are a bit discouraging if you’re a short man. In general, women were more likely than men to think that the man should be taller and they didn’t want to be in a relationship in which they were taller than their male partners. Men liked being taller than their partners, but they didn’t care about the height difference as much as women did.

As it turns out, people do tend to partner with people of similar height due to a phenomenon known as assortative mating.  However, no one seemed totally happy with their partner’s actual height. Men were most satisfied with women 

Office Politics: How to Thrive in a World of Lying, Backstabbing and Dirty Tricks

According to Wikipedia office politics is the use of power and social networking within an organization to achieve changes that benefit the organization or individuals within it.

The modern working world is a dangerous place, where game-playing, duplicity and sheer malevolence are rife. Do talent and hard work count for nothing? Is politics everything? Office Politics: How to Thrive in a World of Lying, Backstabbing and Dirty Tricks by Oliver James provides us with some answers.

The basic notion in this book is that as ever more of us work in complex white-collar environments, success at work depends ever more on office politics. Where blame can be spread and credit stolen, and the bonus pool depends on staying in the boss's good graces, you need to know how to hustle.

The traits that make for a successful hustler are not always attractive, James says. In fact, there's a "Dark Triad" of character types disproportionately represented in office environments: psychopaths, who have no conscience; machiavels, to whom others are but pieces on a chessboard; and narcissists, bursting with malignant self-love

This book teaches how to read the lie of the land; suck up without looking sucky; boast without looking boastful; network and scratch backs; cultivate a persona but don't cause yourself to have a nervous breakdown by cultivating one wildly unlike your own, and so on.

Of particular amusement is in the way he talks about fields of work and structures of reward that encourage the worst sort of politicking. It's good to read someone being scalding about tournament bonus schemes, "360-degree assessment", public‑sector outsourcing and neoliberal labour markets from the point of view of psychology rather than ideology or economics.

James is also sceptical of human resources gobbledygook. He quotes with approval, for instance, an unnamed HR veteran who assures him IQ testing is a waste of time: "The ancient statistical tests are of course fraudulent. As for interviews and personality tests, the whole idea of getting an individual to declare the unknown sources of their life motivation is daft beyond the reach of words."

Most triadic people are the way they are, apparently, because they were unloved as children.

James doesn’t show a  link between how well you do on tests of intelligence and how good you are at office politics. Being clever at exams and tests does not mean you will be clever at politics. As you have probably already observed in your working life, some apparently not very bright people do extremely well, while many people with great educational qualifications and high IQ scores, do quite badly.

Bruce, Caitlyn and codified behaviors that society demands of people

Vanity Fair’s cover story featuring Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce, prompts me to post this article.

Not all people have always known or been conflicted with gender identity. it's a common misconception that all trans people have strongly felt that they belonged in the wrong body all their lives. For some, it's been the pressure of adult gender roles that has forced that realization; for others, transitioning is not a simple male-to-female or vice versa thing, but a shift to androgyny (combination of masculine and feminine characteristics), or to being a gender/genderless, or something else altogether.

Gender identity refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female or something else; gender expression refers to the way a person communicates gender identity to others through behavior, clothing, hairstyles, voice or body characteristics.

So after the hormones, cosmetic surgery and perhaps finally surgical reassignment surgery comes what might be years of psychological introspection. Gender is the non-obvious part of sex. The sex we can see is the shape and construction of the body, but there is a neurological component too. Although we may recognize that our mind is a given gender, and we may have many expressions of that internal, mental sex, that are obvious to our self and others, we must understand that we have missed out on years and years of social conditioning.

The natural behaviors of gender are exaggerated by society. Little masculine or feminine behavior traits that we are born with and express naturally have been developed into a complicated performance over centuries of social development. Sometimes these behaviors can be so exaggerated that they are unrecognizable as natural traits. In order to be accepted as our chosen sex and gender, we’ll need to learn some of these affectations, in order to fit into society. However, we don’t need to learn all of them, or use most of them, if we do not want to. It is important to use only as much of social gender performance as we need to gain the level of acceptance we desire.

Therefore, transition is not only physical, it is also learning the rules and codified behaviors that society demands of people too. The value of this is passing, the act of being accepted without question, and in general, passing is survival.

Holding cynical beliefs may be costly

Holding cynical beliefs about others may have a negative effect on your income according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology is running an article, which presents the findings of research establishing an association between cynicism and individual economic success. We know other research has associated cynicism with detrimental outcomes across a wide range of spheres of life, including physical health, psychological well being and marital adjustment.

The research outlines a series of studies using survey data from the United States and Europe. The first two studies looked at cynicism in national surveys of Americans and income level at a later date. In both studies, a high level of cynicism was associated with lower income.

Another study in Germany found that after nine years people with low levels of cynicism earned on average $300 per month more than their more cynical counterparts.

The final study examined the potential universality of these findings, looking at survey data from 41 countries to see if societal factors could play a role. The negative association between cynicism and lower income was strongest in countries with higher levels of altruistic behavior, lower homicide rates and lower levels of overall societal cynicism.

Interestingly, there are some countries where cynicism might be justified or even somewhat functional. In these countries, cynical individuals do not necessarily earn less than their less cynical compatriots. It’s possible that cynical individuals are less likely to trust others and therefore forgo cooperation opportunities.

The Home Telephone

Alexander Graham Bell's notebook entry of March 10, 1876, describes the first successful experiment with the telephone, during which he spoke through the instrument to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, in the next room. Bell writes, "I then shouted into the mouthpiece the following sentence: Mr. Watson--come here--I want to see you.' To my delight he came and declared that he had heard and understood what I said.

And Stern (1994) "The telephone rings, it jingles our psyches, jangles our nerves.  We are seduced and soothed, rattled and betrayed by it.  Wherever it is-on the desk or street corner, the high seas or highway, in our bathrooms or briefcases-it has, for a machine, an allure like no other.”

The telephone has become an integral part of our life, our society and psychology. In recent years, the home phone has almost become a thing of the past. A mere one-in-five people use their landline for making regular personal calls, with over half of the population keeping it solely for the purpose of accessing the Internet – meaning they pay for unused line rental, on top of their monthly broadband fee. Another poll found one in three people has given up on a home phone, rising to 48 per cent of those aged 18 to 34.

So whole generations grew up in a world of “the” home telephone. This influenced the way they communicated, the immediateness, the crackle of old telephone lines, and not to mention parents yelling at their kids. I need to use the phone.., I don’t like that boy calling you on the telephone, hang up the other line, you hang – no you hang up first, An entire social structure evolved around the home telephone.

Courtship was different then too. Many a love songs are written around the use of the telephone; they seemed far more innocent in their day (see examples below).

In the New York Times recently, reporter Alex Williams mourns “The End of Courtship.” Texting is to blame for dating’s demise. “Instead of dinner-and-a-movie, which seems as obsolete as a rotary phone,” young people today “rendezvous over phone texts, Facebook posts, instant messages.

I think he could have touched on sexting, as well.

Here some words from lyrics from the past. You may well know many of these songs.

Calling on my telephone

Well, somebody calling me, over my telephone

Well, keep on calling, tell them I'm not at home.

Moanin' at Midnight, Howlin' Wolf

1962

Have you read any good telephone books lately?

If you ain't then let me recommend one

I've already read that Tulsa telephone book through

Tulsa Telephone Book, Tom T. Hall

1971

Telephone operator

Why can't I see you later

Telephone operator

Telephone Operator, Pete Shelley

1983

Mr. Telephone man

There's something wrong with my line

When I dial my baby's number

I get a click every time

Mr. Telephone Man 1981

The Portland water they swillin' cold

and it swills my body but not not my soul

Oh the call up to Portland on the public telephone.

The Portland Water, Neal Casal

2005

I'll try again tomorrow.

Over again, as time passes by.

Telephone Exchange, you've got the same old line.

Telephone Exchange, Angel

1977

Feeling unknown

And you're all alone

Flesh and bone

By the telephone

Lift up the receiver

I'll make you a believer

Personal Jesus, Depeche Mode

1990

Talking on that telephone, oh she's always talking on that telephone

Well she must be lonely 'cause she's at home alone

There Goes My Baby, Rick Nelson

1958

Hello operator i would like to place a call

to the pale grey telephone that is hanging on her wall

i know this sounds crazy but could you patch

Hello Operator, Headphones

2005

Friends or relations

On weekend vacations.

We won't have it known, dear,

That we own a telephone, dear;

Love Is Here to Stay, Bill Evans Trio

1963

The era of positive computing

Computers have ever since their inception been largely used as a productivity tool. But recently there has been an increasing interest in the use of computers foster wellbeing – this is being referred to as positive computing.

Digital technologies have made their way into all aspects of our lives that influence our wellbeing - affecting everything from social relationships and curiosity to engagement and learning.

Psychologists have generally focused on the negative impacts of using Internet technologies or on the potential of these technologies to be used to help those suffering from mental health problems. However, recent advances in the development of tools go beyond prevention of disorders to actually promote wellbeing.

In fact, we may be entering an era of positive computing, in which technology will be designed specifically to promote wellbeing and human potential.

Future technology designed to foster wellbeing has the potential to affect population-wide positive change on an unprecedented scale. Thanks to new research, health professionals are now increasingly turning to technology-based interventions to promote physical and psychological wellbeing.

Sydney University’s Positive Computing in Health Systems project node draws on expertise across the disciplines of medicine, psychology and technology to explore how design strategies and technology use affect user behavior and health. This will enable the development of new knowledge and strategies that support wellbeing and more sophisticated technologies to promote better health outcomes.

Using the Charles Perkins Centre themes of Nutrition and Physical Activity, Exercise and Energy Expenditure as a knowledge base, the collaboration between psychology experts and technology designers allows for investigation of how psychological factors such as motivation, autonomy and self-efficacy support wellbeing in relation to nutrition and physical activity.

In the first instance, the project node aims to develop technological models that can inform existing Charles Perkins Centre related projects. Technological models developed from this study will also have wide potential for application to other health and wellbeing research.