Avoiding "Too Tall" and "Too Short": The Effect of the Community on the Regulation of Body Height

Recent evidence emphasizes the role of social signaling in the regulation of human growth.

To disentangle the influence of physical living conditions such as wealth, health, nutrition, and education from influences that are transmitted among members of the social group. We consider the spectrum of all historically possible heights ("transgenerational growth potential") and disentangle the influence of the physical living conditions from influences that are transmitted among members of the same social group. We ask (1) what is the magnitude of the "transgenerational growth potential"? and (2) to what extent narrows this potential upon entering a specific historic community?

We report on the height of more than 14 million German conscripts and recruits born between 1865 and 1975.

Between the late 19th and the late 20th centuries, mean male height increased from 165.8 cm (SD 6.5 cm) to 180.1 cm (SD 7.0 cm). The skewness of the height distribution was always close to zero. Height was statistically associated with living conditions, but the association disappeared when linking characteristics of the within population distribution of height with the disparity of living conditions and economic inequality. Mean height of the social community is a strong attractor of individual height and reduces the "transgenerational growth potential" by more than 50%.

Strong effects of the social community outweigh the effect of individual living conditions and substantially narrow the transgenerational growth potential, to protect against being "too tall" or "too short" within the social community.