BACKGROUND Male height is positively associated with social dominance, and more agonistic/competitive behaviours. However, the 'Napoleon complex' or 'small man syndrome' suggests that smaller males are more assertive and punitive to compensate for lack of height and social dominance. Here, we assess possible relationships between height and punitive behaviours in a real-world setting. METHODS Using a non-experimental correlational design, we analysed data on 61 male association football referees from four professional leagues in England, and explored relationships between their height and punitive behaviours in the form of yellow cards, red cards and penalties given during an entire season. RESULTS Overall there was no effect of referee height on fouls awarded. However, there was a main effect of height on yellow cards awarded, with shorter referees issuing more yellow cards. The same effect was found for red cards and penalties, though this was moderated by league. In the lower leagues, more red cards and penalties were awarded by relatively shorter referees, but in the higher leagues more red cards and penalties were awarded by relatively taller referees. CONCLUSIONS These findings from real-life public dominance encounters show that height is associated with punitive behaviours, but is sensitive to context.

中文翻译：

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裁判的身高会影响英国足球联赛的决策。

背景技术男性身高与社会支配力以及更多的激动/竞争行为成正相关。但是，“拿破仑情结”或“小矮人综合症”表明，较小的男性更自信和惩罚性地弥补身高和社会支配地位的不足。在这里，我们评估了现实环境中身高与惩罚行为之间的可能关系。方法我们采用非实验性相关设计，分析了来自英格兰四个职业联赛的61名男足协议裁判的数据，并探讨了他们的身高与惩罚行为之间的关系，包括黄牌，红牌和整个赛季的处罚。结果总体而言，裁判员的身高对判犯规没有影响。但是，身高对授予的黄牌有主要影响，较短的裁判员会发出更多的黄牌。对于红牌和罚分也发现了相同的效果，尽管这是由联赛来缓和的。在较低的联赛中，较短的裁判员会判给更多的红牌和罚分，而在较高的联赛中，较高的裁判员会判给更多的红牌和罚分。结论从现实生活中的公共支配遭遇中得出的这些发现表明，身高与惩罚行为有关，但对情境敏感。