Thaindian News

London, May 19 (IANS) Good news for all you tall guys — women are enticed by your height!

Women prefer taller men because they are physically more powerful than shorter men. In evolutionary terms, height makes men more useful for women, says researcher David Carrier of Utah University, US.

“Women are attracted to powerful males, not because powerful males can beat them up, but because powerful males can protect them and their children from other males,” adds Carrier.

The scientists attribute the evolution of upright walking to the hard punches that our prehistoric ancestors could deliver when standing on two legs.

“The results of this study are consistent with the hypothesis that our ancestors adopted bipedal posture so that males would be better at beating and killing each other when competing for females,” says Carrier, reports the journal Public Library of Science One.

“Standing up on their hind legs allowed our ancestors to fight with the strength of their forelimbs, making punching much more dangerous. It also provides a functional explanation for why women find tall men attractive,” adds Carrier, according to the Daily Mail.

Carrier studied the power of punches by male martial arts experts and boxers as they struck out in four directions - upwards, down, sideways and forwards.

Men hit with more force when they were standing - and could punch twice as hard when they were striking downwards.

Some scientists have argued that women prefer tall men because their height indicates they have ‘good genes’.

However, Carrier disagrees: “If that were the whole story, I would expect the same to be true for men - that men would be attracted to tall women. But they’re not. Men are attracted to women of average height or even shorter.”