Tall men get better education-Swedish study

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A study of 950,000 Swedish men has
shown that taller men get a better education, a researcher said
on Wednesday.

The study, to be published in the International Journal of
Epidemiology, could suggest short people are discriminated
against as they are expected to be low achievers, said
researcher Finn Rasmussen at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute.

“The probability of achieving higher education in later
life increases linearly with height,” said the study.

It looked at male conscripts into the Swedish army born
between 1950 and 1975 and their education for up to 27 years
after their height was measured at the age of 18.

“Men taller than 194 cm (6 ft 4 in) were two to three times
more likely to obtain a higher education when compared with men
shorter than 165 cm,” it added.

Feeding variables into the study such as social background
or intelligence as measured by IQ altered the outcome slightly,
but a clear link between height and educational attainment
remained, the research said.

The scientists did not draw conclusions, but Rasmussen said
it could be something to do with social attitudes.

“We do not know if people have negative attitudes to short
people. It is possible that there could something in society
about the expectations of people or attitudes to what people
can perform,” he told Reuters.