An international team of psychologists led by the University of Padua in Italy discovered that short people often act hostilely to compensate for their short stature. The findings of the research are presented in a published paper. magazine Personality and Individual Differences.
In psychology, there is the concept of the dark triad, a term that includes personality traits such as narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. These traits are believed to cause harm to others as they are associated with a person’s propensity for manipulation, cynicism, narcissism, and lying. According to scientists, these features are more dominant in people who are short and dissatisfied with their height.
The study involved 367 adults who filled out a questionnaire to assess the above characteristics and also reported their height and a desire or unwillingness to be taller. Both true height and height satisfaction were negatively associated with dark triad traits. In other words, shorter people and those who wanted to be taller tended to show more psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism.
Also, the negative correlation between height and narcissism was stronger among men. However, the level of psychopathy and Machiavellianism did not depend on the gender of the participants.
“This is probably because, in terms of evolution, when humans couldn’t be tough physically, they got tough psychologically,” the scientists said.