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Abstract

We tested whether positive assortative preferences for height are observed in a large cross-cultural sample of men and women (536 adults aged 15-77 from Canada, Cuba, Norway and the United States), and whether assortative preferences for height differ for hypothetical long- versus short-term relationship partners. Participants indicated their height preferences for a long- and short-term mate using graphic stimuli. Replicating previous research, participants generally preferred taller-than-average men and women of approximately average height across cultures. However, positive assortative preferences for height were only weakly observed in either sex, and the strength of these relationships did not vary by relationship context. Assortative preferences for height also did not vary by the participants’ country of residence, nationality, or categorized ethnicity. Our results provide further evidence that the positive relationship between an individual’s own height and the preferred height of a potential partner is not strongly influenced by cultural factors and provide the first evidence that, in contrast to mate preferences for masculine androgen-mediated traits, height preferences do not vary as a function of relationship context.