Stulp et al. 2013 — Are mating preferences for height reflected in actual pairings?

What the study found

Drawing on data from real UK couples, Stulp and colleagues tested whether stated preferences for height actually show up in who pairs with whom. They confirmed a "male-taller norm" — women do tend to pair with taller men — but also identified a "male-not-too-tall norm": pairings in which the man was shorter than the woman, or much taller than her, occurred less often than chance would predict.

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couples where the man was shorter, or more than 25 cm taller, than the woman occurred less often than chance

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Why it matters here

This paper is cited against the sweeping claim that women will only date tall men. It shows the picture is more nuanced: height does influence who pairs with whom, but the effect is modest — assortative mating on height was only about r = .18, and the authors conclude that stated preferences translate into actual pairings "only modestly", more weakly than the strength of those preferences would suggest. The evidence therefore supports a mild tendency rather than a strict rule. See Do women only want tall men?.