Shorter Men Are More Jealous

Naughty little devil... Napoleon may have been skilled in the battle field and able to accomplish many tasks at the same time, but scientists have found his weakness: jealousy. The new research published in the journal "Evolution and Human Behavior" explains why Prince persists with this high heels.

The team at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and University of Valencia in Spain put 549 Dutch and Spanish subjects, men and women, to assess their jealousy level and make a list of the qualities in a same sex rival that makes them feel they are outmatched.

Men appeared to be generally worried about attractive, rich and strong rivals. But the levels of jealousy were gradually decreasing connected to their height increase. The shortest men appeared to be the most likely to experience the most intense feeling of jealousy. Female jealousy was most likely triggered by the opponent's looks and charm, but the least exposed women to the 'green-eyed monster' were those of average height.

In the end, these results have quite logical explanations. Women are attracted by taller men, but the medium height women have the largest number of admirers, as they are regarded as right partners by both shorter and taller men. Still, some average-height women can experience jealousy when facing taller adversaries.

"Taller women are more dominant and have greater fighting abilities than shorter women," wrote the authors.

Are shorter men more aggressive, too?

Anyhow, there is a common belief that men of below average height display more aggressiveness than their taller peers, as they would try to convince the others that they are by no means less capable. The so-called "Napoleon complex" or "short man syndrome" makes 80% of the population regard the small men as violent. But a British study published in 2007 infirmed this.

Some really "evil" short men were Napoleon Bonaparte, whose name was given to the complex and whose height is disputed between 1.58m (5ft 2in) to 1.68m (5ft 6in); Josef Stalin, the Soviet despot was 1.63m (5ft 4in)(according to 1902 police records) and Josef Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment in Nazi Germany (dubbed "the malicious dwarf") was 1.65m (5ft 5in).

The reverse is represented by examples like Saddam Hussein, notorious for mass killings, inter-party "cleansings" and murderous whims, 1.88m (6ft 2in) tall; Idi Amin, 1.93 m (6ft4in) tall, former Ugandan dictator, responsible for genocides and many brutalities, or Osama Bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader who is 1.94m (6ft 4in) tall and thin, at just around 75kg (165lb) weight.

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