Four Scientific Perks of Being Short

Good news for Rove McManus!

Several recent studies show it’s good to be a short guy. Being pint-sized can pay off in your relationships, your health - and even in the bedroom. So stop envying tall men and take heart in these scientific perks of being compact. (And if you stand above 175cms, find out how you can steal your vertically-challenged friends’ secrets.)

1. Your Marriage Is More Stable
Men who stand below 170cms are 32 per cent less likely to divorce than average-height guys, according to a 2014 New York University study. The researchers suspect it has to do with the fact that shorter guys tend to tie the knot later in life. “If the courtship process takes longer for shorter men, on average, then short men who eventually enter marriage may be entering it on more solid ground,” says study author Abigail Weitzman. (They’ll just be lower to that ground. Zing!)

Steal their secret: Don’t run to the altar. Sixty per cent of marriages that form before age 20 break up, compared to 40 per cent of those over age 22, according to a University of Texas study. Now, no one’s saying you should make your girlfriend wait around forever, but hold off until you’re certain you’ll be compatible in the long run.

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2. Your Cancer Risk Is Lower
This is one kind of growth no one wants: taller people have an increased risk for cancer, a 2014 study of over 585,000 Europeans found. Researchers say the hormonal and genetic factors that contribute to height may also stimulate cancer growth.

Steal their secret: Move more. Regardless of your height, exercise may reduce your risk for the Big C, research shows. And intensity matters: a recent Finnish study found that moderate workouts were more protective than easy ones among guys who exercised for an average of 30 minutes a day.

3. You’ll Live Longer
A 2014 study in the journal PLOS One found that a shorter stature predicts a longer lifespan. Researchers tracked 8,000 Japanese-American men for 40 years and found that the taller guys were more likely to die, even when controlling for other factors like body mass index (BMI) and chronic conditions. The shorter guys were more likely to have a gene that’s been linked to longevity, which researchers think may explain the connection.

4. You Have More Sex!
That’s right, short blokes have more sex. And is there really any other metric that matters? Game over, you win.

A 2014 study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found that Hungarian men who stood below 175cms reported having more sex than taller guys: 2.69 times per week on average. And an earlier Hungarian study found that men under 170cms got significantly more lucky than men over 180cms. Researchers aren’t able to explain why — so just enjoy it!

Steal their secret: Tickle her funny bone: women initiate more sex with guys who make them laugh, according to a recent study published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology. It shows that you have intelligence and confidence, the researchers say.

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