Why do tall people succeed professionally far more than others?

In this excerpt from her work, The Tall Book, Arianne Cohen - all 6'3" of her - attempts to unlock one of the mysteries of talldom:


I wanted to know why tall people are so successful in the workplace. Tall people bring home a lot more bacon than short people, to the tune of US$789 more per inch per year. They also dominate the workplace, and always have, as explained in the wonderfully titled 1915 book, The Executive and his Control of Men, which outlines research back to 1900 showing that bishops are taller than preachers, and sales managers taller than salesmen. Ditto with lawyers, teachers and railroad employees. The trend has not changed. The literature on this topic is an exercise in repetition: tall people, male and female, do very well at work, in terms of paycheque, hiring and rank.

But why? I spoke to economists, sociologists and psychologists to piece together a road map for the tall career.

The job interview The conquering begins at the job interview. Numerous studies show that hirers look favourably on talls. When two salesman candidates, at 5'5" and 6'0", present equivalent résumés, a whopping 72% of recruiters hire the taller applicant, and only 1% hire the shorter (a third don't hire either). The same is true for school principals and secretaries. As a rule of thumb, 70% of employers choose the taller applicant.

This is not to say that interviewing while tall is always a slam dunk. I periodically feel that I'm physically overpowering the interviewer, which is the last thing that I want to do. I recently had it happen with the editor-in-chief of a major magazine. The meeting was like a slow-motion train wreck. Val Ackerman, 5'10", the head of USA Basketball, describes the unease. "It translates into funny body language, a feeling of tension and discomfort sometimes. Some men are fine, but I'm not convinced that men are totally at ease with taller women. It kind of makes you just want to find a chair."

That funny feeling is legitimate, the body's way of signalling a body-power imbalance in your favour. "An eye cast down is a more powerful behaviour," says San Diego State University communications professor Peter Andersen. "An eye cast up is always a less powerful behaviour. When I interact with a man who is 6'6", I feel very weird and less powerful because the position of my eyes is almost feminine and in a more submissive position of facing upward." This submissive feeling can prove problematic in an interview. It's quite easy for an employer to come away with a vague impression that a tall interviewee is too domineering. Luckily, upper-level employees - a.k.a., the people doing the hiring - are more likely to be tall.

Co-worker relations By and large, tall people get hired, and then the rise continues. Once on the job, that same downward eyecast is invaluable. Because of that eye gaze, tall workers are perceived to have authority and confidence. And co-workers are aware of it. "What's interesting about height is that people are very good at gauging it," the economist Sir Roderick Floud told me. "One or two inches is actually very obvious." Tall women, in particular, are perceived as more intelligent, affluent, assertive and ambitious than short women. We begin in the power position and build from there.

Timothy Judge and Daniel Cable, the researchers who found the US$789 in extra pay per inch, looked at 71 workplace studies to determine why tall people succeed at work. They found two main social reasons for tall workplace success: First, talls are highly respected by co-workers and bosses. Well-esteemed workers are more likely to thrive due to social support - more helpful colleagues, better assignments, forgiven mistakes, rewards and bonuses, to name a few.

Second, talls are perceived as better workers. "The perception seems to exist that taller individuals are somehow more capable, able or competent," wrote one researcher. Nowhere is this more obvious than in job reviews. One study looked at long-time bosses' job reviews of 78 women. The bosses heavily favoured the taller women, considering them better managers, despite evidence that their work was comparable to that of shorter candidates.

Job performance Judge and Cable tried to parse whether tall people are objectively performing better. It's quite hard to measure - a tall salesman may make more sales, but the boss might also be giving him better leads. They found that talls are not any better at their jobs than other workers. Tall people are certainly competent at their jobs, but are rewarded disproportionately.

Tall promotions "A person's height has significant and direct effect on promotion and work," psychologist Marjaana Lindeman writes. "The taller the person, the shorter the time in which an individual advances from the lowest to higher levels in the hierarchy."

Welcome to the executive suite The tall job ladder often leads to the executive suite. American chief executives are the true hub of tall power, controlling the majority of the country's wealth. Among the CEOs of the 50 largest U.S. corporations, 29% are over 6'3" - a distinction shared by a mere 2% of U.S. men. The CEOs of the Fortune 500 are marginally less tall, averaging six feet in height, three inches above the national average. Thirty percent are over 6'2," as compared with just 3.9% of American men. And roughly 58% of Fortune 500 CEOs are over six feet, while only 14.5% of American men are.

Non-corporate executives are also extremely tall. Examples abound: A 30-year study of a West Point class showed that the tallest quarter dominated the military, claiming 42% of the class' general titles.

The few CEOs that are short are tall in spirit. I recently watched Jack Welch, the 5'7" former CEO and chairman of General Electric, give a speech to an adoring crowd. The most frequent crowd comment: "(Gasp!) I didn't know he was so small!" I asked him about his height. "I beat the odds. I never noticed I wasn't a reasonable height." Of the few other discernibly short CEOs, such as Ross Perot, 5'5," and Warren Buffett, roughly 5'8," most created their own companies, since climbing the ranks is, statistically, near impossible without height. Because, as I found, pretty much none of tall job success is the doing of tall people. Tall ascension is a matter of perceptions and actions by colleagues, who are often shorter. It's just a series of simultaneous, positive perceptions by co-workers, replacing the job ladder with a veritable escalator.

Ninja tall cubicle psychology I called up psychologists and sociologists to see if there might be a sociological effect at play that supports the many numerical indicators of dominance of talls in the workplace. They described a subtle dance of body language that, throughout a tall career, propels talls up the escalator. It's best illustrated through the imagined career of Colin the Associate, a youngish employee at a big firm.

From the beginning, the body language of Colin's co-workers relates to him as a leader. "Research shows that taller people are given bigger personal spaces," says Northeastern University social psychologist Judy Hall. "Whether it's a primordial fear or a way to avoid craning necks is unsure." This means that Colin's co-workers give him one to two feet of extra physical space - which is similar to the personal space people give a boss. Close friends hold conversations 18 inches apart, friends two to three feet apart, and bosses and employees four feet apart. Colin naturally falls into the four-foot realm, which means that co-workers' body language relates to Colin as the professional leader. In turn, Colin plays the role: leader.

The whole office is instinctively aware of Colin's activities. One morning, he walks into a meeting. Everyone at the table is evolutionarily primed to pay attention to Colin, because thousands of years ago, Colin's entrance would represent either a physical threat, or protection, says Kory Floyd, an evolutionary psychologist.

The other tall advantage on Colin's side is that he has more professional wiggle room to screw up and get away with it. According to University of Arizona non-verbal communication psychologist Judee Burgoon, "One of the things we know about height is that it allows a tall person to commit more social violations and have them interpreted to their advantage. Whether he is trying to win a date or close a deal, he has more latitude to commit a violation, and still have good consequences," says Burgoon. Colin can screw up an account or be inadvertently off-colour, and the gaffe will likely be overlooked.

These are prime workplace perks. "When you're outside the norm, you attract a lot of attention, and I think you can use that to your advantage," Burgoon says. "You're considered knowledgeable, poised and attractive. The demeanour you carry can be used to your desired effect."