Tall men may be better after all; New study reveals negative traits about short men

For centuries, women have always fancied men who are "tall, dark and handsome."

They've never revealed the reason but a new study seems to back their intuition that the opposite category of men - short, in particularly - are not so good companions after all. 

The study on Personality and Individual Differences published in the Elsevier journal says short men tend to display narcissistic tendencies in order to appear more powerful. This is meant to make up for other perceived shortcomings.

 “When people cannot be physically formidable, they may become psychologically formidable instead,” says Monika Kozłowska from the University of Wrocław, Poland, lead author of the study.

“Shorter people with traits such as psychopathy can use them to demand respect, impose costs on others and impress romantic partners. Appearing more powerful may in turn make other people perceive them as taller than they really are,” she adds.

The study also investigated the 'Napoleon Complex', which is the aggressive attitude displayed by short people to compensate for their lack of height.

The ‘complex’ is named after Napoleon Bonaparte, former French leader, who was about 1.68 metres tall. During the French Revolution, he was portrayed as an angry man who sought power and war.

Kozłowska’s study says there’s some truth in the link between height and these odd behaviours: Psychopathy [lack of empathy and antisocial behaviour], narcissism [a self-centred personality style] and Machiavellianism, which is a demonstrating manipulation and indifference towards morality.