• Question: In the 1500-1800 people were short so…later in like 200-500 years will the humans of that time be smaller the same or taller???

    Asked by anon-200285 to Leigh, Rosemary, Oliver, Jordan, Hannah, David on 6 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: David Walker-Sünderhauf

      David Walker-Sünderhauf answered on 6 Mar 2019:


      I think in general people are evolving to become taller, so in 200-500 years people will think back and say “In the 1900-2100 people were short” 🙂

    • Photo: Oliver Gordon

      Oliver Gordon answered on 10 Mar 2019:


      Like David said, you are right. We are certainly becoming taller on average – https://ourworldindata.org/human-height. (side note – this is a problem for me as I’m already rather short!)
      .
      I believe this to be because height is a genetic factor which is passed down from your parents. For whatever reason, taller people (particularly men) are more likely to be seen as “attractive” (although of course not everybody!). This means that tall people are more likely to have kids, who are therefore more likely to be tall. This makes humans on average become taller over time. Unless there is a change in the unspoken rules of society, I don’t see this changing!

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