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Tall men get better education-Swedish study

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 February 2006, 09:38 CST

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.

Source: REUTERS

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