Human height is positively related to interpersonal dominance in dyadic interactions

Across cultures, taller stature is linked to increased social status, but the potential reasons why this should be are unclear. One potential explanation is that taller individuals are more likely to win a dyadic confrontation with a competitor (i.e., they are more dominant), which leads to higher s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2015-02, Vol.10 (2), p.e0117860-e0117860
Main Authors: Stulp, Gert, Buunk, Abraham P, Verhulst, Simon, Pollet, Thomas V
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Body Height
Dominance
Dyads
Female
Gender differences
Humans
Hypotheses
Interpersonal Relations
Life sciences
Male
Males
Men
Middle Aged
Observational studies
Personal Space
Social classes
Social Dominance
Social factors
Social interaction
Social interactions
Social rank
Social status
Women
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Summary:Across cultures, taller stature is linked to increased social status, but the potential reasons why this should be are unclear. One potential explanation is that taller individuals are more likely to win a dyadic confrontation with a competitor (i.e., they are more dominant), which leads to higher social rank. Although some previous studies have shown that perceptions of status or dominance are related to height, and are therefore consistent with such an explanation, there is surprisingly little research testing whether height actually has any influence on the behavioural outcomes in real-life social interactions. Here, we present three naturalistic observational studies demonstrating that height predicts interpersonal dominance during brief dyadic interactions. Study 1 investigated the likelihood of giving way in a narrow passage (N = 92); Study 2 investigated giving way in a busy shopping street, plus the likelihood of colliding with another individual (N = 1,108); and Study 3 investigated the likelihood of maintaining a linear path while walking, and potentially entering another individual's personal space (N = 1,056). We conclude that human height is positively related to interpersonal dominance, and may well contribute to the widely observed positive association between height and social status.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0117860