The Napoleon complex manifests itself through the so-called “dark triad”: psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism.
Do short men feel shame either complex when their female partners are taller? It seems that in some men there is a conflict with it. A group of researchers studied the relationship between height and the features of the “dark triad”psychopathy, the narcissism and Machiavellianism and found that there is a relationship between the three traits and dissatisfaction with height. It is what they call the short man syndrome either Napoleon complex.
The psychopathy it is defined by a lack of empathy and antisocial behavior; the narcissism it is an egocentric personality style; and the Machiavellianism demonstrates manipulation and indifference to morality.
The study
A study carried out by Monika Kozlowskafrom the University of Wrocław (Poland), discovered that shorter men tend to show more narcissistic tendencies to appear more powerful.
“When people can’t be physically formidable, they can become psychologically formidable. Short people with traits such as psychopathy may use them to command respect, impose costs on others, and impress romantic partners. Appearing more power can make others perceive you as taller than you really are,” says Monika Kozłowska.
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In the study, published in the journal of Elsevier Personality and Individual DifferencesKozłowska investigated the so-called Napoleon complexwhich owes its name to the French leader Napoleon Bonaparte, who was said to have been 1.70 m tall, which caused British newspapers to mock him for his height during the French Revolution.
Kozłowska wanted to check if there was any relationship between the men considered shorter than average and those displaying “dark triad” personality traits.
The researcher and a group of experts surveyed 367 men and women using the questionnaire of the “dirty dozen” of the dark triad. In this questionnaire, participants were asked to what extent they agreed with phrases such as “I tend to manipulate others to get my way.”
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Based on their responses, they were given a score indicating the extent to which they demonstrated psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. Each participant also had to reveal her height and indicate what satisfied or dissatisfied with her and how often they felt that way about it.
The results
Shorter participants of both sexes who wanted to be taller tended to score higher in all three traits of the dark triad. Something that caught the attention of the experts is that the narcissism it was more evident among male participants, while this trend was non-existent among females.
The researchers hypothesize that these associations can be attributed to evolution, survival, and psychology.
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“Shorter men can command respect, impose costs on others, acquire resources, and impress their partners with their traits.”
Shorter women may resort to the cheated to appear more desirable or to obtain protection Y means. Also, they seem to want feign power to influence the perception that others have of the estimated height.
“We propose that psychological formidability may provide survival and mating advantages that outweigh losses in physical formidability.”
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