What Your Height Says About Your Financial Habits

According to new research from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, you may be able to tell how people manage their money just by looking at them. Not by checking out what they're wearing or other indicators of status, but simply by seeing how tall they are.

McCombs assistant professor Alok Kumar, along with George Korniotis, of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, report in "Tall versus Short: Height, Lifelong Experiences and Portfolio Choice" that height is the second highest predictor next to wealth of one's financial decisions, beating out factors such as age and education.

Using a standardized height measure for the height in each country they studied, the researchers found that the following was true for taller-than-average individuals:

• 15 percent more likely to participate in the stock market
• More likely to be entrepreneurs
• Take more risks, but are what Kumar calls "judicious" risk takers

The research found that risk taking was less pronounced in tall women, and that very tall individuals, those in the top five height percentile, are less likely to take financial risks.

While these findings might make for interesting water cooler talk, many are skeptical about the practical implications of such research. Yet Kumar sees this, along with his previous research about how people's age, religion, location and other factors affect their financial habits, as serving an important purpose.

"My general feeling is that left to themselves, people would not make the best financial decisions," Kumar said in a McCombs press release. "Most people don't even recognize their biases. They should at least be aware. For example, if I'm taller, maybe I should recognize that I might be taking more risks."

Image courtesy of Flickr user Tambako the Jaguar, CC 2.0.