Ever wonder why expensive cars seem to be made for tall people. Well it's probably because they are the ones that can afford to buy them.

Timothy Judge, a professor in management studies at the University of Florida has published a paper in the Journal of Applied Psychology that analyses the correlation between height and career success. Using results of four large-scale studies in the United States and Britain that followed thousands of participants from childhood to adulthood, he has come to the conclusion that for each additional inch in height you can expect to earn an extra US$789 per annum.

This phenonemon was particularly pronounced in social professions such as sales and management but also present in the nerdy domains of engineering, accounting and computer programming.

Not only are tall people rated more highly on subjective measures like evaluations of work performance by supervisors but also on more objective measures like sales volume.

Evolutionary pyschologists believe they have an explanation. Prehistoric man lived among animals and size was an index of power and strength.

"They ascribed leader-like qualities to tall people because they thought they would be better able to protect them," Judge said. "Evolutionary psychologists would argue that some of those old patterns still operate in our perceptions today."

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