Study Suggests Short Men Are More Likely To Be Psychopathic, Narcissistic, And Manipulative
They say tall men rule the world, but there's a growing interest in shorter men. But some scientists say that short men are more likely to possess some psychopathic tendencies.
A-list celebrity couple Zendaya and Tom Holland have been praised by fans and social media users all over the internet. Tom is visibly shorter than Zendaya, but their height difference has never been an issue. In fact, it kind of feels like we're living in a new era that embraces short men and everything they bring to the table. Some people say that shorter men are less selfish and more likely to treat others with kindness because they lack the arrogance that comes with men over 6 feet tall. But this might be misguided.
Study Suggests Short Men Are More Likely to Be Psychopathic, Narcissistic, and Manipulative
A study of 367 men and women was published in the Elsevier journal Personality and Individual Differences, and a group of Polish scientists found some fascinating results in regards to short men. The study is called "The Napoleon complex, revisited: Those high on the Dark Triad traits are dissatisfied with their height and are short." Out of the 367 people who participated in this study, 63% of them were men, and researchers concluded that shorter people, men in particular, "may compensate for their shortness with antagonistic behaviors."
"We conceptualized antagonism as individual differences in the Dark Triad traits (i.e., psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism) and found they were associated with not only being shorter but also with the wish to be taller; these associations were similar in the sexes," the study reads. "We discussed our results from an evolutionary (i.e., calibrating formidability) perspective."
The Dark Triad traits—psychopath, narcissism, and Machiavellianism—have classically been associated with the Napoleon complex, a term referring to shorter men who possess antagonistic qualities because they are attempting to compensate for their height. "The Napoleon complex could be a marker of inferiority as in the complex theory or an adaptive strategy to compensate for diminished intrasexual competitive abilities," the study says. The term Napoleon complex comes from Napoleon Bonaparte, French Emperor who was 5'2 and notoriously aggressive as a political leader.
The researchers says they are led to believe that "the behavioral syndromes of the dark triad traits" might be part of nature's psychological systems that allow short men to "still compete in life's great challenges." In other words, because the men are short, they are given aggressive, even psychopathic traits to properly compete with the tall guys.
“Appearing more powerful may in turn make other people perceive them as taller than they really are,” says Monika Kozlowska of Poland's University of Wroclaw. “Shorter men with traits such as psychopathy can use them to demand respect, impost costs on others and impress romantic partners. We propose that psychological formidability may provide advantages in survival and mating domains that offset losses in physical formidability.”
Some celebrities that come to mind are Kevin Hart and Tom Cruise. It seems that men like this (who are 5'6 or under) could have an inclination toward psychopathic behaviors. Take it with a grain of salt, but you'll probably never be able to look at Joe Jonas the same ever again.