Short men around the world were devastated by the news this week that Tinder is introducing an experimental height filter.
Spotted within the Premium Discovery section of Tinder’s Settings, the tool allows users to specify the minimum and maximum heights for their matches.
So, is it really over for so-called ‘short kings’?
MailOnline spoke to experts to get to the bottom of it – revealing the most attractive heights for both men and women.
Surprisingly, research shows that the most attractive height is quite a bit taller than the average height of the population.
Henry Cavill, Bradley Cooper and David Tennant are right on the mark, while other Hollywood heartthrobs like Barry Keoghan are a little too short.
It’s also bad news for celebrities like Maya Jama and Anna Taylor Joy who are too tall for the average man’s taste.
So, how do you stack up?
Scientists have revealed that the ideal height for a man is 6ft 1″, the same height as Superman actor Henry Cavill (pictured)
What is the most attractive height?
Determining the exact ‘most attractive’ height is not an easy task because there are lots of factors which affect height preferences.
However, there are a few common factors that allow us to determine the heights that will be most attractive to the average person.
Professor Gert Stulp, a social scientist from the University of Groningen and expert on human height, told MailOnline: ‘One’s own height has a strong effect on one’s preferred height.’
In a study of 5,782 speed daters, Professor Stulp found that women preferred men who were on average 9.8 inches (25cm) taller than themselves.
Men, on the other hand, preferred women who were on average 3.1 inches (8cm) shorter than themselves.
While the ideal height will, therefore, vary from person to person we can use the average height of the population to get an estimate of the ideal height for dating.
Given that the average height of a woman in the UK is 5ft 3″ (161.6 cm), a man who is 6ft 1″ (185cm) will be the preferred height for the largest number of women in the population.
Studies have shown that women prefer a man who is 24 centimetres tall than themselves. This means the average woman will prefer a man who is 6ft 1″, a group including Bradley Cooper (right) and Keanu Reeves (left)
Standing at 5ft 8″, Barry Keoghan (pictured) would be considered too short for an average-height woman
Male celebrities at this optimal height include Keanu Reeves and Channing Tatum while Chris Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, and US President Donald Trump would all be considered too tall by the average woman.
Likewise, based on an average male height of 5ft 9″ (175 cm), a woman standing at 5ft 5″ (165cm) is the most attractive for the average British man.
So while Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Piper are at the optimal height for dating, Lily Allen and Kim Kardashian would both be too short.
However, it is important to bear in mind that this is just a general rule based on the average.
Professor Stulp maintains that there can’t be any single perfect height because ‘height varies considerably across populations and because there are large individual differences’.
For example, studies have shown that women with higher self-perceived attractiveness tend to prefer men who are significantly taller than themselves.
Similarly, shorter women and taller men both typically prefer a bigger height difference between themselves and their partners than taller women and shorter men.
Does height matter in dating?
Studies show that men prefer women who are eight centimetres shorter than themselves, which would be 5ft 5″ for the average UK man. Female celebrities with this ideal height include Demi Moore and Emma Watson
While singer Olivia Rodrigo (right) is the ideal height for the average man, Lily Allen (left) would be considered too short
Studies have shown that taller men and shorter women prefer a greater height gap between themselves and their partners. This might help explain the size difference between 4ft 8″ Simone Biles (right) and her 6ft-tall husband Jonathan Owens (left)
This week it was revealed that Tinder had quietly begun testing a new optional height filter.
Spotted within the Premium Discovery section of Tinder’s Settings, the tool allows users to specify the minimum and maximum heights for their matches.
While Tinder did not widely announce the height tool, it confirmed to MailOnline that it is testing the paid option.
‘We’re always listening to what matters most to our Tinder users – and testing the paid height preference is a great example of how we’re building with urgency, clarity, and focus,’ a Tinder spokesperson previously told MailOnline.
On social media, the news of the new tool has sparked controversy with some claiming it is ‘over for short men’.
While many have embraced the option to filter by height, Professor Stulp agrees that this will ‘reinforce the idea that height is important in mate choice’ and ‘affect patterns of matching’.
Professor Stulp says: ‘With Tinder, there is an endless pool of candidates, and one has to constrain one’s search heuristics.
‘Things like height and age are easy things to restrict on because they can be summarised in numbers. It would be hard to set such restrictions one, for example, humour.’
This comes as Tinder sparked controversy following the launch of its latest feature. The dating app has quietly started testing a height filter
The same is true of speed dating scenarios, in which Professor Stulp’s earlier research took place, where people have limited time to make a decision.
‘Of course, in such settings, physical features will be more important, even when for all candidates it would hold that they think humour, intelligence, ambition, wit, creativity are more important in their partner,’ says Professor Stulp.
A study published by researchers from the University of Amsterdam this year found that a small improvement in physical attractiveness boosted profile swiping success rate by about 20 per cent.
An increase in intelligence of the same relative size, measured by an IQ test score displayed with the profile, produced only a two per cent increase in swiping success.
However, in real-life settings such as an actual date, height might not be as important as Tinder swiping makes it seem.
Where we have more time to make decisions other factors like personality and intelligence become more important for long-term dating success.
Professor Stulp says: ‘People may still have the same preferences for height, but would consider them unimportant in comparison to other traits.’
Similarly, in the same University of Amsterdam study, the results showed that while height improved success it was only marginally more important for dating profile than intelligence or job title.
Why do people care about height?
Some theories suggest that height remains important for women because of evolutionary pressures in our distant past.
Historically, height was associated with favourable traits like status, health, and strength which would ensure more success for offspring.
While those factors may no longer be important for our survival, the preference for them might still linger in our psychology.
However, Professor Stulp points out that some hunter-gatherer or pre-industrial societies have less strong height preferences.
Likewise, it doesn’t explain why men would be more attracted to smaller women.
Professor Stulp says: ‘I think the best answer is that males and females from any species prefer traits that are typical of the other sex.
‘Because men are on average quite a bit taller than women, taller height is more a “male trait” and shorter height more a “female trait”.’
