As Barack Obama is inaugurated president today, an event the media has declared to be an historic moment, I recall a conversation that I had with a woman in Cambridge a few months ago. She asked me who I’d voted for in the Primary. I replied “Barack Obama, mostly because I wanted to make sure that my weblog prediction of his victory in the general election came true.” She snorted in disgust: “What a surprise. You voted for another tall man.”
4 thoughts on “Another tall man becomes President of the United States”
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Scott Adams (Dilbert author) frequently mentions how men in positions of power are tall with good hair. This applies to politicians, CEOs etc. It was rather surprising that Romney didn’t end up the Republican candidate on those criteria.
A citation: http://36chambers.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/adams-theory-2-for-2/
It used to be tall, white men, with good hair.
One bias down, and three to go!
There exists a good deal of data regarding the association of tall stature for success and even IQ. Certainly some nutritional deficiencies cause short stature in addition to impaired mental skills and perhaps this is hardwired into our psyche to help us generate first impressions of new people. Some interesting psychology studies have been done with individuals made to appear shorter or taller and observers consistently rate the taller perspective individual as having greater authority and leadership skills. Just look at a police officer the next time you run across authority. Regulations require thick heavy boots and the donning of a cap at all times which adds to height.
I too voted for Obama, but I am pretty sure my appreciation for Ross Perot excuses me from any label of tallness-bias in politicians. In fact, it hurts me to see all those worthy, short women politicians nearly disappear behind those tall podiums. How unconscious on the part of contemporary set designers and tall politicians is that?!
An article in Scientific American indicates that the woman in Cambridge was voicing a common misperception and cites studies in support of a different explanation of tallness trends, one that leads into your post today re how European countries are developing health care systems. And thank you for that look up and around. Right now best practices are the north star for planning.
Two points on tallness trends from Sci Am:
– “Thus, natural selection, the process whereby differences in reproductive success account for changes in the traits of a population, does not explain why we are taller.”
– “Most geneticists believe that the improvement in childhood nutrition has been the most important factor in allowing humans to increase so dramatically in stature.”
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=why-are-we-getting-taller&print=true