Men and women around the world have gotten taller and heavier over the last century, but men have done so faster in both categories, a new study suggests. Researchers from the US, the UK, and Italy crunched health data from the World Health Organization going back to 1900 on more than 130,000 people from more than 60 nations, per Phys.org. They also factored in data from the Human Development Index. Their takeaway stat:
- Each 0.2 increase in the HDI saw an increase in height of 1.68 centimeters (0.66 inches) for women but 4.03 centimeters (1.59 inches) for men, per CNN. Women saw an average weight gain of 2.70 kilograms (5.95 pounds), compared to 6.48 kilograms (14.29 pounds) for men.
"To put this in perspective, about one in four women born in 1905 was taller than the average man born in 1905, but this dropped to about one in eight women for those born in 1958," researcher Lewis Halsey at the University of Roehampton tells the Guardian. What's behind all this? The title of the study in Biology Letters offers a hint at what the researchers are thinking: "The sexy and formidable male body: men's height and weight are condition-dependent, sexually selected traits."
Meaning, they think men are getting bigger because women prefer them that way. "Women can find men's height attractive because, potentially, it makes them more formidable, but also because being taller suggests they are well-made," says Halsey. "As they've grown up, they haven't been affected by the slings and arrows of a bad environment, so they've reached more of their height potential." (More discoveries stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
