Heightand Leadership PDF

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Heightand Leadership...

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NOTES ON HEIGHT AND LEADERSHIP Social sciences research has found that tall men are more likely to attain leadership positions. For example, Presidents of the United States tend to be significantly taller than the average height in the U.S.’s male population. The idea that height affects the chances of attaining leadership positions is consistent with a large body of evidence from the psychology literature showing that tall people are seen as more persuasive, impressive, and capable. Moreover, people with prestigious occupations are judged to be taller. For example, the public would be inclined to believe that a prominent leader who has recently attained a position appears taller after entering the position than before. There is also a significant relationship between height, wages, and earnings, with tall men faring better on average. While the correlation between height and leadership is often thought to be caused by discrimination against short people or differences in self-esteem that favor taller people, height may be correlated with skills and abilities sought in leaders. Several studies have found height to be positively correlated with intelligence, potentially because of both environmental and genetic factors. At least one study has found a relationship between height and physical ability, although other studies have shown a weaker correlation. These differences may find a basis in environmental factors. For example, studies have shown that nutritional status during childhood affects both height and cognitive development. Or, the differences, may be basied on genetics. Since both height and intelligence exhibit high levels of heritability, assortative mating or pleiotropy (when a single gene affects several traits) also could be at play. Nonetheless, some studies have suggested that the possibility tall men are promoted to leadership positions partly because they are tall cannot be ruled out. There is a strong correlation between height and the proportion of men in managerial positions. The fact that tall men are more likely to select into managerial positions explains a meaningful share of the unconditional wage premium associated with height --- in other words,

tall men tend to get higher paying jobs. However, controlling for cognitive and noncognitive ability reduces the height-leadership correlation by more than half, suggesting that the association between height and leadership is, at least to a considerable extent, due to a correlation between height and ability. It is an open question whether the remaining height-leadership correlation reflects unobserved factors or whether being tall has a positive effect on the probability of being seelcted for a leadership position.

It’s not to say that people tend to choose high people to be leaders. It’s more likely that the tall became leaders because of the ability entailed to themselves. With better nutrition at childhood, children tend to develop better cognitive skills and at the same time grow taller. Also, the gene influencing both height and intelligence could also be at play with regards to higher chance of tall people becoming leaders. But whether there indeed is a correlation between height and leadership remains an open question....