TY  - JOUR
A1  - Liu, Yuk-Chien
A1  - Groth, Detlef
T1  - Body height, social dominance and the political climate
BT  - a comment
JF  - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology
JF  - Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie
N2  - Background: The association between stature and social dominance is known. Dominance within social groups and current politics are related issues. We therefore aimed to compare estimates of the opinion of a population about their current political issues, with physical growth. Material and methods: We used data on the 2012 and the 2014 elections for the Japanese House of Representatives and the percent proportion of votes of the 47 prefectures of Japan, and regional data on body height of 17.5 year old men and women. Information on capita income, possession of mobile phones, urban/rural population ratio, and age distribution were added to capture socioeconomic factors. Four political parties were present in most of the 47 prefectures: the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the New Komeito Party (Kom) that is known for their social network community, and the Japanese Communist Party (JCP). Results: A dense network of associations exists between height, age distribution, per capita income, number of smartphones, and voting results. Male and female body height was inversely related with the proportion of votes for New Komeito Party. Average stature decreases by one mm per percent votes for this political party. Medium strong positive associations were found for male body height and voting results of the DPJ and for female body height with the JCP election results. Conclusion: In modern Japan, popular preferences for conservative political structures coincide with shorter stature.
KW  - stature
KW  - social dominance
KW  - strategic growth adjustments
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2018/0855
SN  - 0003-5548
VL  - 74
IS  - 5
SP  - 445
EP  - 450
PB  - Schweizerbart
CY  - Stuttgart
ER  -