Height plays only a modest role in actual couple formation

The number

In the largest analysis of real UK couples, height turns out to explain only a small part of who actually pairs with whom: assortative mating on height was modest, about r = .18, and although height preferences do surface in real partnerships, they do so far more weakly than the strength of women's stated preferences would predict. ^[1]

do so only modestly

^[1]

What it does and doesn't establish

The number confirms that height genuinely factors into how couples form — the correlation is real, positive and consistent with the well-documented "male-taller" pattern. But an r of about .18 is a weak-to-modest effect: it shows height nudges who pairs up, not that it dictates it, and it says nothing about a hard six-foot cutoff or short men being filtered out — the same research also found very large height gaps dispreferred, and short and average-height men partner and marry all the time. It is one modest input among many, which is why it cannot support an absolute claim like Do women only want tall men?