Do tall people indeed have leadership skills? Evidence from 12th graders

Abstract

ABSTRACT Extant literature shows that tall people are more likely to hold leadership positions. However, no studies have examined whether these individuals possess leadership skills. In this study, we conducted an analysis using a South Korean government-sponsored survey of 4,000 12th graders containing information on leadership skills evaluated by their homeroom teachers. Homeroom teachers in the country are well positioned to perform the task as they spend significant time interacting with students and observing their behaviours. We found that a 1 cm increase in height increased the probability of having the skills by 1.0% point for males and 0.7% points for females. Our findings are robust with the addition of control variables such as academic performance. Furthermore, an analysis based on the evaluations of parents who are unlikely to have exact information on how tall their children are relative to their peers demonstrated a similar result to the original analysis. Finally, we found that serving on student councils was the most important mechanism for the height effect.