The key to a happy relationship? Your height difference, apparently

*Throws away high heels*

Forget love at first sight or communication or being honest with each other: according to science, the key to a happy relationship is in your height difference.

Researchers at Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea, analysed data from 7,850 women, finding that a taller husband makes a wife happier - but the effect was minimised over time, so no need to panic if you are a vertically challenged man.

No one asked the husbands how they felt - but as for the women in the picture, it was a resounding 'taller, please'.

Writing in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, researcher Kitae Sohn said: ‘Although it has been known that women prefer tall men in mating for evolutionary reasons, no study has investigated whether a taller husband makes his wife happier.

‘A greater height difference in a couple was positively related to the wife’s happiness... one is the intrinsic value of height; that is, women simply like tall men, while unable to say why.

‘This is similar to people favouring fatty, salty, and sugary foods without knowing exactly why: such foods are essential to survival but were scarce as humans evolved – hence craving such foods increased reproductive fitness in the past.'

Sohn also said that opting for taller men made women more fertile, writing that the 'female preference for male height increased women’s reproductive fitness’.

However, if you're the same height as your other half, don't worry because the effect fades eventually - after a whopping 18 years.

‘Women evolved to prefer tall men because they were perceived to be stronger, and naturally they are happy when they have what they like’, Sohn wrote. ‘But as for other desired objects, pleasure from having them dissipates. What was surprising is that the complete dissipation took 18 years.’

Is your partner much taller than you? Does it make you happier? Let us know @marieclaireuk