[comfypotato]

You misread the headline. People outside cities are taller.

Also, taller people are healthier (admittedly only indirectly because of their height). It’s not just a comment on health. Height is a social advantage.

That being said, the article is a gross oversimplification. The top comment accurately points out a lack of control for even ethnicity (which would completely explain the difference in height in the US).

[ptoo]

My point doesn't relate to whether rural or urban children become taller. Height is largely genetic, and discounting malnutrition it has no bearing on a person's health. Shorter people actually live longer on average.

Social advantages based on arbitrary phenotypic traits should not be encouraged. White people generally have social advantages given the fact that racism exists.

[nitwit005]

> Height is largely genetic, and discounting malnutrition it has no bearing on a person's health.

But nutrition is what's being measured here. People from poorer countries are on-average shorter, and that is largely driven by diet, although childhood illness is also a factor.

The issue isn't height really, it's that people are having their growth stunted. They did not reach the height they would have if they'd gotten better food, better sanitation, etc.

[Avicebron]

I found the opposite when I was in China, I don't think I had much of a social advantage although I didn't speak the language very well at the time.

[ptoo]

That's a good corroboration of my point that height being a positive characteristic is largely cultural/societal and of no true importance as it relates to a person's worth.

[Avicebron]

Fair enough, I was mostly responding to you shoehorning the white thing in there, again, being white in China/Japan isn't a social advantage, because of racism. So we can just table it at "racism" exists and is bad and should be actively discouraged, how about that?

[ptoo]

To me, that's even further evidence that both race and height are totally inconsequential. That fact that these things can bestow social advantages is no reason to view either of them in a positive light.

Racism is certainly bad and should be discouraged. Somewhat controversially, apparently, so should heightism.

[lotsofpulp]

Height (and the other attributes that go with it) generally confer an advantage in a physical fight.