Yancey, GeorgeEmerson, Michael O.2014-02-142014-02-142014Yancey, George and Emerson, Michael O.. "Does Height Matter? An Examination of Height Preferences in Romantic Coupling." <i>Journal of Family Issues,</i> (2014) Sage: 0192513X13519256. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0192513X13519256.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/75471Amidst increasingly equality in belief and in practice between the sexes, we ask if height preferences still matter, and if so, why people say they matter. First, we collected data from Yahoo! dating personal advertisements. Second, we used answers to open-ended questions in an online survey. The Yahoo! data document that height is still important in decisions to date but that it is more important to females than to males. Results from the online survey indicate that women wanted tall men for a variety of reasons, but most of the explanations of our respondents were connected to societal expectations or gender stereotypes. Gender-based legitimation of height preferences seem to be more central than evolutionary-based legitimation, but future work may discover a more nuanced interpretation.engArticle is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.Journal articledating/relationship formationonline datingheight preferencegender and familyhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0192513X13519256