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Tall people are happy
Here is the abstract to a new paper by Angus Deaton and Raksha Arora.
According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index daily poll of the US population, taller people live better lives, at least on average. They evaluate their lives more favorably, and they are more likely to report a range of positive emotions such as enjoyment and happiness. They are also less likely to report a range of negative experiences, like sadness, and physical pain, though they are more likely to experience stress and anger, and if they are women, to worry. These findings cannot be attributed to different demographic or ethnic characteristics of taller people, but are almost entirely explained by the positive association between height and both income and education, both of which are positively linked to better lives.
Now if I were in favor of redistribution...
Posted by Alex Tabarrok on July 24, 2009 at 07:20 AM | Permalink
Comments
Perhaps in general, but we're miserable on airplanes.
Posted by: Brock at Jul 24, 2009 10:11:04 AM
Does this explain the happiness difference between rich and poor countries, as better health/nutrition confers an increase in height? Or, is the height benefit only conferred relative to one's peers within a society?
Posted by: Josh at Jul 24, 2009 10:35:49 AM
Height is also correlated with intelligence as measured by IQ. The correlation is sometimes cited to explain the gender IQ gap, where controlling for height, no appreciable gap is seen.
Posted by: SUR at Jul 24, 2009 11:22:47 AM
We should mandate that doorways be no higher than 6ft.
Posted by: Yancey Ward at Jul 24, 2009 11:39:48 AM
Short people should have lower tax rates.
Posted by: 8 at Jul 24, 2009 11:56:03 AM
Whatever.. I have porn.. Im good
Posted by: Nick at Jul 24, 2009 12:17:09 PM
If the redestributive route is rejected, there's always the Procrustian approach as an alternative.
Posted by: Pseudolus at Jul 24, 2009 1:40:20 PM
From up here you can actually see the beauty of the world, you can see above all the hubbub!
Posted by: MPABlazer at Jul 24, 2009 3:09:26 PM
All these happiness studies make me so depressed.
Posted by: Rob at Jul 24, 2009 5:04:34 PM