They say size doesn’t matter. But when it comes to getting the girls, it seems short men really do miss out. Men who are petite of stature have fewer sexual partners than taller men, a study has found.
Researchers looked at how people’s height and weight affected how many sexual partners they had. While short men had the least number of sexual partners, the researchers were surprised to find that tall men did not always have the best sex lives
Researchers quizzed 60,058 heterosexual men and women asking each to indicate their height, weight, and how many partners they have had. The average number of partners reported for both men and women ages 30 to 44 was eight since they became sexually active.
A total of 58 per cent of men and 56 per cent of women reported having more than five partners, and 29 per cent of men and 23 per cent of women reported having more than 14 partners.
The study team said some of the findings about the links between sexual history, height, and body mass were surprising and did not fall neatly in line with evolutionary or cultural thinking. The expectation that tall men would have the most sex partners was only partially supported.
In fact, there was little difference in number of sex partners across the height range, with just one exception. Only very short men reporting notably fewer median sex partners – five – than men of other heights – seven.
In terms of average number of partners, men who were average to extremely tall reported one to three more partners than men who were shorter than average.
Dr David Frederick, a psychology professor at Chapman University in California, said: ‘These findings confirm that height is relevant on the mating market.
‘However, the relatively limited variation in sex partner number for men across much of the height continuum is difficult to explain.
‘Research has repeatedly shown than women prefer men who are relatively taller than they are. ‘It is possible that for most women there is a certain minimal threshold of height, after which they will consider a male as a potential sex partner, and thus men above that height will end up with similar numbers of sex partners.’
With regard to men and body mass index (BMI), the study revealed that men in the middle BMI ranges had the most sexual partners.
