In Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise (as superspy Ethan Hunt) dangles from the wing of a biplane in mid-air, plummets from the sky in a burning parachute, and heroically navigates the flooded interior of a sunken submarine.
However, one thing you won’t see in the latest (and possibly last) Mission: Impossible instalment is Cruise looking a fraction shorter than any of his co-stars.
To avoid other, taller, actors towering over him, Cruise reportedly leans on a range of compensatory strategies to mask his height, which is reported to be a little over 5’7″ (170 centimetres).
These strategies include crafty camera angles, shoe lifts, and perspective-shifting positioning.
New research published in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences may shed some light on why, despite his vast fame, and estimated fortune of $600 million, Cruise seems determined to beat his biology.
Conversely, it also goes some way towards explaining other canny casting choices – such as why Al Pacino, who is even shorter than Cruise, at an estimated 5’6 (168 centimetres), was so effective as ruthless Michael Corleone in The Godfather.
The long and short of it
The research was published by Daniel Talbot at the Australian Catholic University and Peter Jonason at the University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw.
It found that shorter men were more likely to display envy, jealousy, and competitiveness.
“Particularly for men, there is this relationship with being shorter and being more intrasexually competitive, jealous and envious, but even more so (than height), it’s how they felt about their height,” Talbot told me during an interview.
Daniel Talbot
This appears to provide empirical support for a couple of well-worn cultural assumptions – in that short men inevitably want to be taller and, failing that, will compensate for shorter stature by becoming more aggressive, domineering, and competitive.
Such behaviours are commonly attributed to ‘short man syndrome’ or the ‘Napoleon complex’.
The pejorative term arises from military commander Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) who was, in fact, about the same height as Pacino, but famously satirised as short, boastful and prone to tantrums by a prominent cartoonist of the day.
It’s also consistent with psychologist Alfred Adler’s psychological theory of ‘compensation’.
Adler proposed that individuals who were sensitive to their own physical or psychological shortcomings might work to build mastery in other areas.
In this way, a man who felt self-conscious about his height might ‘compensate’ by dialling up other qualities associated with masculinity, such as dominance.
Talbot’s research involved a survey of 302 participants.
The authors state that intrasexual competition, or the rivalry among individuals of the same sex for access to mates, social status and resources, critically shapes human behaviour and social dynamics.
“Taller men are rated as more desirable and formidable as romantic partners and rivals, respectively, than shorter ones,” Talbot says.
This is not unique to humans, the authors note, with size playing a central role in dominance, survival, and reproductive fitness.
Other research has revealed how size contributes to copulatory success in everything from northern elephant seals to American rubyspots (a type of damselfly).
Height dissatisfaction
But Talbot’s research teased out a key distinction.
That is, it’s not so much a person’s physiological height – but how they feel about the gap between their actual versus ideal height – which matters.
Height dissatisfaction, he explains, is a psychological construct that captures negative feelings or discontent about one’s own height.
“You might have someone who’s shorter in stature, like 5’5, but isn’t really bothered about their height because they have other avenues of self-esteem,” Talbot explains.
“Then you could have somebody who’s quite tall, who feels not so great about their height.”
Height, he adds, is all relative. Although Talbot is 5’11 (180 centimetres, the same as George Clooney or Brad Pitt), he is still the “shortest guy” out of his father, brothers, and other male family members.
“Psychological perceptions of height significantly influence social dynamics and behaviours,” he writes.
“Understanding these associations can inform strategies for promoting positive body image and mental well-being, particularly among men who may feel marginalized by societal height standards.”
Intrasexual measures
The heterosexual participants were surveyed across a range of measures, including their height and their perception of their height.
The 12-item Intrasexual Competition Scale was also used to assess the degree to which they looked to members of their own sex and experienced envy (e.g., “I tend to look for negative characteristics in attractive men/women”), jealousy (e.g., “I just don’t like very ambitious men/women”), and competitiveness (e.g., “I always want to beat other men/women”).
The results revealed that those who wanted to be taller – especially men – scored higher for intrasexual envy.
This might play out in shorter men feeling resentment or ill will towards a same sex rival whom they believed was getting more attention due to their appearance, Talbot explains.
Shorter people also scored higher for jealousy, and competitiveness.
The former, for instance, may involve a surge of hostility when a same sex rival flirts with one’s potential love interest, while the latter involves attempts to boost one’s own social status through self-promotion or trash-talking the rival.
Talbot notes that the limitations of the study included the number of participants and use of a W.E.I.R.D. (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) sample.
However, other height-related research undertaken with a 2733-strong sample of sexual minority men (men who do not report their sexual orientation as exclusively heterosexual) revealed similar findings.
Specifically, for instance, researchers identified a mismatch between participants’ ideal versus actual heights, greater height dissatisfaction in the shortest men, and perceptions that treatment from others became increasingly negative as actual height decreased.
Talbot says several studies further highlight that sexual minorities have elevated levels of body dissatisfaction and eating disorder symptoms, compared to people who are heterosexual.
Body image investigations
Talbot’s most recent research is part of a broader body of work concerned with body image.
In 2023, he co-authored a study published in Personality and Individual Differences which found that Dark Triad traits (psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism) were associated with not only being shorter, but with the wish to be taller.
These associations were found in both men and women.
“These relationships may be best understood from an evolutionary framework, suggesting that when people cannot be physically formidable, they may then be psychologically formidable instead,” the authors wrote.
“Shorter men can demand respect, impose costs on others, acquire resources, and impress romantic partners by their traits.
“Shorter women can use deception to appear more desirable or to gain protection and resources.”
Currently under review is research involved in developing a self-report scale of height dissatisfaction, and studies which probe how exposure to social media and dating apps may amplify height dissatisfaction.
These studies underline how height, and how you feel about your height, is an important and understudied aspect of body image, Talbot says.
“Height is different (because) it’s very difficult to change,” Talbot says.
“You can get quite invasive surgery to have your legs broken and reconstructed, but it’s expensive and uncomfortable and it (doesn’t make) a big difference.”
Leg lengthening for aesthetic purposes is a costly and complicated procedure which is nonetheless “gaining traction worldwide, including in Australia”, according to the website of orthopaedic surgeon Sam Shales.
A 2025 study published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research examined outcomes across 12 different studies, noting that two-thirds (67%) of 760 patients were men, with an average age of 24.75 years.
The lengthening achieved ranged from 62 mm to 87 mm, with an average of 67 mm.
Though this sounds like only a marginal change, patient satisfaction rates ranged from 88.8 to 98%, while psychological outcomes showed improvements in body image and self-esteem.
Common complications included infections, bone healing issues, joint deformities, and material-related complications.
However, most patients resumed normal activities with minimal joint limitations, the study noted.
Heightening the focus
The results of Talbot’s latest research have only intensified his desire to look more closely at other aspects of height.
“It’s very much an understudied domain of body image,” he explains.
“Stature is a very salient and important aspect of our bodies and how we feel about them.”
For people dissatisfied with other aspects of their physicality, such as body fat, body shape, or muscularity, there were clear behavioural pathways to alter this, such as through dieting and exercise, he pointed out.
“But if you’re shorter in stature, there’s not too much you can actually do about changing that,” he explains.
Unless you’re Cruise, of course, in a pair of Cuban heels.