Height and political activism in rural Aragon (Spain) during the 20th century. A new perspective using individual-level data

This article explores the relationship between the political leanings of more than 1000 men born in the 1870-1970 s in 11 rural Aragonese villages and their biological well-being during childhood and adolescence, proxied by height. The aim is to test whether an individual was more likely to be left-wing if his level of biological wellbeing was lower and, therefore, with more incentives to fight against the social inequality that had negatively affected his family. Our results confirm that, for most of the study period, there was a strong relationship between shorter height and political activism1 in left-wing parties and organizations.