Taller people are smarter

While researchers have long shown that tall people earn more than their shorter counterparts, it's not only social discrimination that accounts for this inequality -- tall people are just smarter than their height-challenged peers, a new study finds.

"As early as age three -- before schooling has had a chance to play a role -- and throughout childhood, taller children perform significantly better on cognitive tests," wrote Anne Case and Christina Paxson of Princeton University in a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The findings were based primarily on two British studies that followed children born in 1958 and 1970, respectively, through adulthood and a U.S. study on height and occupational choice.

Other studies have pointed to low self-esteem, better health that accompanies greater height, and social discrimination as culprits for lower pay for shorter people.

But researchers Case and Paxson believe the height advantage in the job world is more than just a question of image.

"As adults, taller individuals are more likely to select into higher paying occupations that require more advanced verbal and numerical skills and greater intelligence, for which they earn handsome returns," they wrote.

For both men and women in the United States and the United Kingdom, a height advantage of four inches equated with a 10 percent increase in wages on average.

But the researchers said the differences in performancecrop uplong before the tall people enter the job force.Prenatal careand the time between birth and the age of 3 are critical periods for determining future cognitive ability and height.

"Prenatal care and prenatal nutrition are just incredibly important, even more so than we already knew," Case said in an interview.

Since the study's data only included populations in the United Kingdom and the United States, the findings could not be applied to other regions, Case said.

And how tall are the researchers?

They are both about 5 feet 8 inches tall, well above the average height of 5 feet 4 inches for American women.

一直以來，有調(diào)查顯示，個(gè)高的人比個(gè)矮的人掙錢多，而最新一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，這種不平等不僅緣于社會(huì)歧視--其實(shí)，個(gè)高的人比個(gè)矮的人要聰明。

普林斯頓大學(xué)的安妮·凱絲和克里斯蒂娜·帕克森在美國(guó)國(guó)家經(jīng)濟(jì)研究署刊物上發(fā)表文章指出：“個(gè)子較高的兒童在接受學(xué)校教育之前，甚至從三歲開始一直到整個(gè)童年時(shí)期，他們?cè)谡J(rèn)知測(cè)試中的表現(xiàn)都比較突出。”

這些研究結(jié)果主要根據(jù)英國(guó)人所做的兩項(xiàng)研究和一項(xiàng)由美國(guó)人做的研究而得來，其中，由英國(guó)人所做的兩項(xiàng)研究分別對(duì)1958年和1970年出生孩童的成年期進(jìn)行了追蹤，而美國(guó)人的這項(xiàng)研究主要針對(duì)的是身高和擇業(yè)之間的關(guān)系。

另有一些研究表明，個(gè)子較高的人自尊心不是很強(qiáng)，身體更好；社會(huì)歧視是矮個(gè)子收入偏低的罪魁禍?zhǔn)住?/P>

而凱絲和帕克森則認(rèn)為，找工作時(shí)，身高優(yōu)勢(shì)并不只是個(gè)形象問題。

她們?cè)谖闹刑岬剑骸皞€(gè)子較高的成年人從事高薪職業(yè)的可能性更大，由于高薪職業(yè)對(duì)人的語(yǔ)言、算術(shù)能力、以及智力的要求更高，所以他們掙的錢也很多。”

在美國(guó)和英國(guó)，無論男性還是女性，擁有4英寸的身高優(yōu)勢(shì)就等于薪水平均高10％。

而研究人員稱，這些差別早在他們開始工作前就顯現(xiàn)出來了。產(chǎn)前護(hù)理期以及從出生到三歲這段時(shí)間是決定孩子日后的認(rèn)知能力和身高的關(guān)鍵時(shí)期。

凱絲在一次采訪中說：“產(chǎn)前護(hù)理和產(chǎn)前營(yíng)養(yǎng)相當(dāng)重要，甚至比我們想象的還要重要。”

凱絲說，由于此項(xiàng)研究的數(shù)據(jù)主要針對(duì)的是英國(guó)和美國(guó)的人口，所以研究結(jié)果在其它地區(qū)不一定適用。

你知道這兩位研究人員有多高嗎？

她們的身高均為1.72米，大大超過美國(guó)女性的平均身高1.62米。

Vocabulary:

crop up: 出現(xiàn)；顯現(xiàn)（例如：A difficulty has cropped up at work.工作中出現(xiàn)了困難。）

prenatal care : 產(chǎn)前護(hù)理