
Well, apart from Cameron, Obama and Canada's Stephen Harper who all come in at over six foot there are some current political leaders who are rather more diminutive. The paper entitled 'Caveman Politics' on evolutionary psychology relates it back to ideas and beliefs gleaned from our prehistoric ancestors. David Schmitz, found evidence that would suggest physical stature affects people's preferences for political leadership.

The work, published by Dr Gregg Murray and J. Psychologists believe the bias may stem from an evolved preference for physically imposing chiefs who could dominate enemies.Ĭameron, Obama and Hollande have all beaten shorter candidates in past elections – Gordon Brown at 5ft 11ins, John McCain at 5ft 8ins and Sarkozy at 5ft 5ins. Voters see tall politicians as better suited for leadership, according to a survey of how people visualise their leaders. It is not for nothing that top politicians are known as political giants or "big beasts". An evolutionary throwback has been suggested as the root of this.

In the scientific paper published last year psychologists from Texas Tech University found in a study that almost two-thirds of participants showed a preference to draw larger figures when asked to draw images of leaders. As the first female Chancellor of Germany, it's not suprising that Angela Merkel stands 5 inches shorter than the average height for German leaders. Both David Cameron and Barack Obama beat the average height, standing tall at 6ft 1. Now we have a new leader in the pack we're asking once again how tall really are our leaders? We've also compared them to the average height of statesmen of their country over the last 40 years.Īt 5ft 7ins, Hollande is two inches taller than Sarkozy but also two inches shorter than the average height for French leaders of the past 40 years. It was an opportunity too good to pass up so we compared the heights of various leaders from different countries and eras. Last year we were told stature really does matter according to a scientific paper published in Social Science Quarterly. But how does he compare to the past leaders in terms of height?

François Hollande will step into Nicolas Sarkozy's shoes today when he is sworn in at the Elysée palace, becoming France's first socialist leader in nearly 20 years.
