As a researcher, and now respected voluntary Internet columnist*, there comes a time when I have to defend my work to critics. Now I have a new defense: 'I'm taller than you.'
Two fairly tall Princeton economists have found that "on average, taller people earn more because they are smarter."
And this is not just confusion between correlation and causation. It is well documented that taller people earn more money over a lifetime that a shorter person--holding everything else constant. The traditional explanation focuses on social factors--taller people are more self-confident and more intimidating or something like that. But Case and Paxson's research shows that cognitive differences in tall people show up as early as 3 years old--before social factors can determine outcomes.
That's right--people that end up being tall are smarter at age 3 than those that end up being short. The new explanation for this somewhat odd result focuses on environmental factors--people who end up tall are more likely to get better nourishment at young ages. OK, let me rephrase that--people with good nourishment and better prenatal care at young ages are more likely to grow taller--either that, or their parents used a lot of fertilizer on their lawn. But, childhood nourishment and good prenatal care are also likely to at least partially determine intelligence. So the causation is between nourishment and height and nourishment and intelligence. The relationship between height and intelligence may be just correlation.
And if you are tempted to disagree, don't...I'm 6'3".
*aka 'blogger.'
