
Are taller people smarter? - luccastera
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/the-most-surprising-thing-i-learned-today/
======
vlad
(The following is an exercise in critical thinking, only shows one side of the
issue, and does not reflect my opinion either way.)

Tall people don't earn "high" wages, they earn "higher" wages (only about $500
a year more according to recent studies.) And if the person is tall, and their
kids are tall, $500 a year is likely not enough to cover the extra costs of
food. If there should be a change, it should be that the government should
pass a law that tall people should be paid at least $5,000 a year more, to
cover bigger, non-entry level, non-Toyota or Honda sedans and SUV's, worse gas
mileage, greater car expenses, and the price of size XL-Tall and 2XL-Tall
clothing from specialty stores since regular stores don't carry tall sizes.

Why don't articles write about that? Everybody wants to point out that tall
people earn $500 a year more, on average, but not the fact that shorter people
come out on top. That extra $1 a day does not cover the extra food for one
person, let alone a family, nor does it cover the greater car, specialty
clothing, gas, car repair, car insurance, and other expenses whatsoever for
even one tall person, nor their family.

A tall person may also use shampoo and soap much faster, and need to use more
water in the shower.

If anything, the status quo encourages more short people to reproduce.

And, if taller people actually are "smarter" or more productive (for whatever
reason, be it confidence or something else) then they're _really_ getting the
short end of the stick by having to survive with $4,500 less yearly taxable
income.

(I like to think from both sides of the issue, and I haven't seen that side
addressed any time the issue has been brought up.)

~~~
Tichy
Maybe tall people earn more because they need more...

------
mynameishere
Taller people are indeed smarter if you don't remove the malnourished from
your sample. Useless information, one way or the other. It's sort of
like...well, X race has a lower average IQ than Y race. As long as you're not
shaping policy around the contrary, it doesn't matter at all.

------
gscott
Napoleon was 8 or 9 feet tall after he got onto his horse. So it is about
height! Or maybe drive & passion are more important... oh well so confused.

------
run4yourlives
From the comments...

>I went to law school. Everybody was short.

Yup, pretty much confirms it! :-)

------
epi0Bauqu
Hmm...the average height at MIT is definitely significantly on the short side,
even across all ethnic backgrounds.

~~~
amichail
I think brain volume is what matters. I think there's a correlation between
height and brain volume, but perhaps it's weaker in some races, particularly
those where most people are short.

~~~
migpwr
if this were true it would be hard to explain asia...

~~~
amichail
So the brain volume (not head size) is smaller in Asian people?

~~~
migpwr
Maybe? The point of my smart ass comment was that a person's height or brain
volume doesn't matter...

------
amichail
I think this is related to the brain volume being larger for taller people.
Another paper showed that larger brain volume results in smarter people.

[http://www.people.vcu.edu/~mamcdani/Big-
Brained%20article.pd...](http://www.people.vcu.edu/~mamcdani/Big-
Brained%20article.pdf)

------
euccastro
_Homo longus raro sapiens, at si sapiens, sapientissimus._

Now I wish I could downvote myself..

