According to a new study, men around the world have gained height and weight twice as fast as women over the past century, driving greater differences between the sexes.
“We’re seeing insights into how sexual selection has shaped the male and female body and how improved environments, in terms of food and a lower burden of disease, have freed us from our shackles,” said Prof Lewis Halsey at the University of Roehampton.
The findings build on previous work that found women want taller men more than men want shorter women. But there are downsides to being tall. …
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Michael Wilson, professor of ecology, evolution and behaviour at the University of Minnesota, said the faster increase in male height and weight was “striking”. He said it was consistent with a long-standing idea that females are “the more ecologically constrained” sex because of the demands of reproduction, particularly in mammals where pregnancy and nursing are “energetically expensive”.
