If Tall Guys Are Your Type, We Have Some Really Depressing News

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American Men Are Getting Shorter, According To Study

Say it ain't so!

Do you have a thing for guys with beards? Or maybe it's guys who have a lot of tattoos that really get you going? Well, you're in luck because it seems as if those two things aren't going away anytime soon.

However, if you really enjoy dating or being with someone who is super-tall, especially American men, I have some bad news for you.

A recent study called "A Century of Trends in Adult Human Height" looked at height data from 1,472 population-based studies of over 200 countries. The study found that while Americans were among the tallest in the world a century ago, our growth is lessening over time and other nations have taller people. In fact, the largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men.

For decades, tall men have been sought after as mates; they're also thought to be happier, healthier, and earn more money. Science has also shown that tall men are less likely to develop and die from dementia.

In 1914, American men were ranked as the third tallest in the world, and American women were ranked the fourth tallest. Today, they've fallen to 37th and 42nd place, respectively, after hitting their tallest heights in 1996 and 1988.

The tallest people over the last 100 years were men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of the 20th Century whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm (approximately 6 feet), and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 who were 140.3 cm (approximately 4.6 feet).

Two of the study's authors, James Bentham and Majid Ezzati, hypothesized that the decline in height could be caused by a worsening diet for poor Americans. Another variable that wasn't taken into account was that individuals from countries with smaller citizens who had immigrated would have affected the results.

Now is the time to embrace people of all heights and let go of any preconceived notions of taller being better than shorter. Shorter people are just as good as tall ones and just as attractive. 

Science has shown that Americans are getting shorter. We need to get used to it and rethink our ideas on the characteristics that we desire the most.