People unhappy with their height are ‘more likely to be psychopaths’

Many people crave to be just a few inches taller.

But it’s very much a case of be careful what you wish for, because a new study suggests that those with such desires tend to be more likely to have dark personality traits.

Known as the ‘Dark Triad’, these traits include psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism.

The research suggests that people who are relatively short may engage in antagonistic behaviours in an attempt to offset their height disadvantage. 

‘Shorter people, especially those who wish they were taller, are more characterised by traits that are likely to make them show-off, be confrontational, and interested in power,’ said lead author Peter K. Jonason, of the University of Padua in Italy. 

People with psychopathic traits have a lack of empathy, impulsivity, and a disregard for social norms and rules, while narcissists have an inflated sense of self-importance, entitlement, and a need for admiration. 

Machiavellianism, meanwhile, relates to someone who is manipulative, cynical and lacking in morality.  

Jonason added: ‘One of the reasons these traits have become so popular to study is the contention that they might be adaptive — albeit socially undesirable — solutions to attaining status/mates/survival calibrated on both dispositional features like the ability to compete and the context one grew up in (especially) and one’s current circumstances (less so).’ 

Short men tended to have more narcissistic traits than short women, but there wasn’t a significant difference between the sexes in terms of psychopathy and Machiavellianism. 

‘We expected these relationships to be stronger in men given evolutionary and Freudian considerations but we found only scant evidence for differentiation of these correlations by sex,’ Jonason said. 

The researchers used Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to recruit 367 adults from the US for their study. 

They then asked them to complete the Dirty Dozen Dark Triad questionnaire, which is designed to assess levels of psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. 

The researchers also asked those who took part to reveal their actual height and the extent to which they agreed with the statements ‘I wish I were taller’ and ‘I am satisfied with my height’.

The research suggests that people who are relatively short may engage in antagonistic behaviours in an attempt to offset their height disadvantage (Pictured: Christian Bale as suave murderer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho)

Their findings revealed that shorter people and those who wished to be taller tended to exhibit more psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism.

The question is, why do shorter people tend to have more dark traits? 

The authors said ‘these relationships may be best understood from an evolutionary framework, suggesting that when people cannot be physically formidable, they may then be psychologically formidable instead.’

In other words, if someone is physically inferior or weaker, they try to find a psychological advantage to get back on a level playing field. 

This can also provide advantages in survival and mating, the researchers suggest.

Shorter men may demand respect, acquire resources, and impress romantic partners with their personality traits, for example, while shorter women can use deception to appear more desirable or gain protection and resources. 

The new study has been published in Personality and Individual Differences. 

WOULD YOU KNOW HOW TO SPOT A PSYCHOPATH?

Psychopaths display different traits depending on their disorder.

Common signs include superficial charm, a grandiose notion of self-worth, the need for stimulation and impulsiveness, pathological lying, the ability to manipulate others and a lack of remorse and empathy.

But despite the popular association, not all psychopaths become killers.

Experts claim people usually find psychopaths intriguing, but can’t put their finger on why. 

This is down to incongruous behaviour because psychopaths tend to do a lot of acting to deceive, or mimic normal reactions, sometimes changing their views and reactions quickly.

For example, Self-professed psychopath Jacob Wells said that upon meeting someone, he tries to become ‘the most interesting person they know’ and presumably adopts suitable interests and responses to do this.

His response also gives away another common trait – a grandiose notion of self-worth – in that he can be the most interesting person in the room.

Psychopaths occasionally tend to exhibit unconvincing emotional responses, with slip-ups including tone of voice or body language.

This may be because they are unable to understand emotions such as fear and love, but can mimic them.

Psychopaths display different traits depending on their disorder, but common signs include superficial charm and the ability to manipulate others. Despite the popular association, not all psychopaths become killers (stock image)

Generally psychopaths’ ’emotions’ are shallow and short-lived and there is a manipulative ulterior motive to showing them.

For example, Mr Wells said he offers to do favours and tells false secrets to people to gain their complete trust.

He also displays insincere charm – another trait associated with psychopaths.

He says: ‘I keep secrets, and tell them fake secrets to further gain their trust, and once they trust me enough, I ask for favours, reminding them of the favours I did them. I can get literally anything from them, which is incredibly useful.’

Psychopaths typically display an incredible ability to manipulate others and sometimes take pleasure in doing so. 

Psychopaths often have an air of superiority about them, perhaps shown by Mr Wells’ belief he can spot other psychopaths

Even expert Dr Hare, who came up with the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) used as a diagnostic tool to determine where someone lies on the psychopathy spectrum, warns that anyone can be duped during a short interaction with a psychopath.