Short men are more likely to be 'psychopaths,' study finds

Beware of short men - they could have a dark side.

A group of Polish scientists have found that short men “may actually be evolutionarily hardwired” to what’s known as the “dark triad” personality traits, associated with more confrontational behavior like psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism.

The scientists wrote in the Elsevier journal Personality and Individual Differencesand revealed their study of 367 people found "that not only are people high on the dark triad traits less satisfied with their height, but this may be because they are actually shorter.

“This leads us to believe that the behavioral syndromes of the dark triad traits may be part of a suite of psychological systems designed by natural selection to better enable those of shorter stature a way to still compete in life’s great challenges.”

While shorter women “can use deception to appear more desirable or to gain protection and resources”, the scientists did not see the same link between the dark triad personality traits and their height.

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When a person is not physically intimidating, they have to impose themselves in other ways, becoming “psychologically formidable” instead, lead author Monika Kozlowska, from Poland’s University of Wroclaw, said.

“Appearing more powerful may in turn make other people perceive them as taller than they really are,” she added.

The study added: “Shorter men with traits such as psychopathy can use them to demand respect, impost costs on others and impress romantic partners.

“We propose that psychological formidability may provide advantages in survival and mating domains that offset losses in physical formidability.”

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