Scientists have found that there is a curious relationship between how tall someone is and how kind, moral and generous they appear to be.

The University of North Carolina researchers, led by Dr. Lawrence Shana, who published the relevant study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, according to New Scientist and Scientific American, first conducted experiments with an elevator. As they found, the higher the elevator went, the more willing the occupants were to help others.

Those asked to make a donation as soon as they arrived at the penthouse gave 16% of the amount they had on hand to charity, while those asked to do the same while on the ground floor gave 11%. Those who were asked to make their contribution as soon as the elevator had taken them down from the penthouse to the ground floor gave only 7%.

In another experiment, it was found that volunteers who were asked to devote their time to an activity by climbing on a raised stage in a theater were willing to sit for significantly longer (11.2 minutes on average) than those who were asked to do the same task descending into the lowered orchestra area of ​​an opera, who were more "stingy" with their time (only 6.5 minutes).

Furthermore, in a third experiment, those in elevated space showed greater compassion for others and a willingness to cooperate with them. Participants were less willing to punish someone if they had just gotten high from somewhere low, while conversely, if they had just come down from somewhere high, they were harsher and more willing to inflict punishments.

The researchers concluded that, for some reason, when one is in a higher position in the literal sense, especially if one comes from a lower position, one feels the need to become more sensitive to others, more philanthropic and more willing to lend a helping hand. Thus, the correctness of the metaphor about "superior" people who are morally "higher" than others is confirmed. After all, isn't God, the "father" of every virtue, supposed to be somewhere up there, where it can't be any higher?

The new study joins a relatively new field of psychological research that shows that there are relationships between physical space and one's mental attitudes and mental perceptions, e.g. in relation to "good" and "bad". But the exact mechanism in the brain that connects metaphorical concepts (eg superior-high morality) with one's behavior and movement in space (elevation-high altitude) has not yet been determined.