This has been the case for a long time, even with attributes that you have far less control over, such as your height [1]. Given typical social prejudices, I would not be surprised if the height effect was greater for men and the weight effect was greater for women.

GLP-1 drugs seem to provide a (relatively) painless way to control the weight effect; the corresponding treatment for control of height [2] is much more painful, risky, and expensive.

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[1] https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/standing

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/us/height-surgery-limb-le...

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dnautics a day ago | parent | next [-]

in an era when interviews are done by zoom, is there a height effect for men?

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aczerepinski a day ago | parent | next [-]

Surround yourself with tiny replica objects and look like a giant. You can skip straight to CEO.

	▲	chneu 21 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You joke but this has been a legit tactic in business for...ever? Big desk, high chair while the guests chairs are "lower", etc.

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treis a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Definitely one of the most unexpected bits of WFH is to show up to an onsite and find out your coworker is 6'5".

	▲	edaemon a day ago \| parent [-]
		I know of a guy who, before attending in-person meetings for the first time with new people, sends the message "FYI, I am 7 feet tall." He's gotten enough weird looks or outright stunned people that he takes precautionary measures.

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Mountain_Skies a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Perhaps not in the early part of the hiring pipeline but unless the entire hiring process is remote (I've done this once so it's not impossible), sooner or later the full physical appearance is going to get judged.

I did have a weird experience right before the pandemic where the CTO of our company, who had never met me in person before but we'd been on tons of Zoom calls, got visibly upset and even said he'd been tricked, because I was older than he thought. That wasn't a good sign for my future in the slice of the company. The irony here is that he was near retirement age and has since retired. Still, my professional headshot, which was at least a decade old, appears to have set expectations. Guess even on a video call people sometimes see what they expect to see and only during an in-person meeting do they have to confront reality.

	▲	rimunroe a day ago \| parent [-]
		> but unless the entire hiring process is remote (I've done this once so it's not impossible) FYI this is the norm for fully remote positions, at least in my experience

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throwaway2037 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

The best analogy I have heard about height and men: Height is a proxy for strength, and that is why it is so advantageous in economics, politics, and dating. I fully expect serious medical research in the near future for a childhood genetic treatment to increase adult height, as the advantages are just so enormous.

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klaff a day ago | parent [-]

We (tall people) die sooner.

	▲	throwaway2037 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I checked the research. It seems like 5-6cm increases your mortality due to cancer by about 4-5%. That seems like an excellent trade. Adding 5-6cm will give you a huge boost in overall quality of life for a tiny trade in total overall lifetime mortality.