Love is in the air... if the height is right

Sexual attraction really does depend on size — but the dimension that makes the crucial difference is height, scientists have found.

A man knows when a woman is the one for him by the distance he looks down on her, according to a new study.

The research has shown that other vital statistics, such as thin waists and well-developed chests, come second to relative heights in determining whether people will be physically attracted to each other.

Only when a couple have decided that their height ratio is right do they consider other features such as looks or body shape.

So strong is the discrimination in favour of partners of the “right” height that the researchers were able to express the formula mathematically. They found that the ratio most likely to get people interested in each other was 1:1.09. This suggests that the ideal mate for a woman 5ft 8in tall would be about 6ft 2in. By contrast, a woman of 5ft 2in might seek out men of around 5ft 8in.

The scientists believe that the right ratio between male and female height is an evolutionary signal indicating the best genes and highest fertility, and is a predictor for the right size of children.

The study, by Dr Boguslaw Pawlowski, an anthropologist, will be published by the Royal Society shortly. Pawlowski said humans seemed to be programmed from birth to choose partners with a particular height relationship to their own.

This “sexual dimorphism in stature”, or SDS, is worked out by dividing the man’s height by that of the woman.

“Females prefer taller men. Taller men have higher social status, earn more and are at lower risk from illness,” said Pawlowski. “Taller men also have better reproductive success, as do shorter women — so a male will look for a smaller female, and a female will look for a taller male.”

At first sight such findings cannot explain the attraction between couples such as Bernie Ecclestone (5ft 4in) and his wife Slavica (6ft). Their height is just one of the striking differences between them: he is 72 while she is in her early forties.

However, Pawlowski, of the University of Wroclaw in Poland, has an answer for this, too. His paper for the Royal Society will say that men and women who are considerably taller or shorter than average look for respectively much shorter or taller mates in order to produce children of a more average size.

In other words, the formula breaks down in exceptionally tall or short people. They instinctively know that having children with someone about their own size could lead to freakish youngsters.

“The results show that both men and women adjust their preferences to reflect their own physique,” said Pawlowski. “Although a ratio of 1.09 works for most people, very tall and very short people will adapt it to suit their own circumstances to get at the right average.

“Tall women compromise and select smaller mates for the sake of their children.”

Pawlowski’s study was based on 600 men and women aged 19-50. They had their vital statistics recorded and were then shown outlines of couples of varying relative heights and asked to say which best represented their ideal.

The results showed that most people opted for a coupling in which the height ratio was 1:1.09. However, 24% of women and 34% of men wanted to be in couples with a smaller height difference — where the ratio was just 1:1.04.

The study suggests that David Beckham (6ft) and his wife Victoria (5ft 7in), are almost the ideal couple with a ratio of 1:1.07. Beckham would need an extra inch to be a true Mr Perfect.

What is more, their coupling will benefit their children when they grow up, because they are likely to have youngsters of similarly average heights. “Short height in sons and tall height in daughters are handicaps in the mate market,” said Pawlowski.

The scientist believes that understanding such unconscious forms of sexual selection will eventually tell us how humans may evolve in future.

Tom Cruise (5ft 7in) and Nicole Kidman (5ft 11in) perhaps demonstrate how things can go wrong for people who do not abide by Pawlowski’s formula. When they married in 1990 they were described as the perfect Hollywood couple. But they never had children of their own and divorced in 2001. Cruise is now dating Penélope Cruz, who, at 5ft 6in, is an inch smaller than he is.

Other research has shown that important factors in choosing our mates include the waist-to-hip ratio of the woman, body mass index (a measure of fatness) and facial attractiveness.

Biologists have long suspected that such factors were at work because millions of years of evolution will have ensured that people seek mates with whom they are likely to have the fittest offspring.