PSYCHOLOGY UP The height of happiness Whether little or lanky, height can have a profound effect on our relationship with the world. Mark Smith cuts a long story short The third tallest man in Th e Netherlands is resting his hand on me, and it feels as if someone has strapped an uncooked 1kg steak to my shoulder. Olivier Richters, 22 years old and 2 metres 17cm in his socks, has spent the aft ernoon modelling outsized clothes at the annual conference of the Klub Lange Mensen (literally, the ‘club for tall people’). Now, he poses dutifully for photos, spurred on by his father-slashmanager, a man of average height but intense pride, who is distributing business cards featuring snaps of a strapping Olivier, muscles clenched beneath the banner ‘Dutch Giant: Taller! Bigger! Stronger!’ Olivier – a postgraduate student in Information Sciences at the University of Utrecht – goes on to confi de, somewhat bashfully, that he is frequently booked for red carpet appearances on account of his extravagant stature, which is extreme even among the Dutch, the tallest people on earth. Helpfully, Richter senior is on hand to corroborate, with an extensive photo album. Here’s Olivier towering over the original cast of Th e A-Team. Here’s Olivier on the set of the national lottery show, during which contestants were challenged to guess his height. Here’s Olivier in his capacity as spokesperson for a chain of muscle-building gyms. Height, it seems, is an advertising byword for might. Behind us, a TV interview with a female delegate is in session. She talks animatedly about the myriad challenges facing tall people – the perilous, low-hanging street signs, the hurtful playground jibes, the fact that, even in Th e Netherlands, 44 Holland Herald “it’s almost impossible to shop at an indoor market without taking a safety helmet with you” – as well as the benefi ts (“I’ve never had a bad seat at the theatre,” she off ers). Th e news station seems to have dispatched the shortest anchor possible, who cranes his neck for comic comparative eff ect. Th e boom mic operator is wobbling perilously on a high step. Like it or not, we’re fascinated by height, and by the unspoken hierarchy that it may or may not imply. Surely it can be no coincidence that the heroes of romantic fi ction are described as ‘tall, dark and handsome’, in that particular order? Participants in the fi eld of online dating – both male and female – are known to exaggerate their height at least as much as they do their salaries. And when it comes to the top job on earth, the American electorate typically favours the taller presidential candidate over his shorter competitor. One question remains, though. Why? Professor George Maat of the Leiden University Medical Centre may have some clues as to the answer. A lecturer who’s travelled extensively, he was struck by the internationally held perception that Dutch people are on an endless upward vertical trajectory: “It’s very clear just from looking at families today that Dutch youths are, on average, taller than their parents, who are in turn taller than their parents,” he reports. Keen to establish whether this had always been the case, Professor Maat set about investigating the height of Dutch men throughout history, via an unprecedented course of
Illustrations Pete Gamelen for Dutch Uncle