When you fantasized about your storybook wedding, did you picture your dream prince as much taller than you? You actually may have been on to something. A 2016 study found that a greater height difference in a couple leads to a much happier marriage, specifically when the husband is significantly taller than the wife.

You wouldn’t think that height differences would have any effect on how happy or unhappy a marriage could be, but researchers from Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea, found otherwise. A 2014 study conducted by Rice University in Texas, however, speculated that height matters more to women than men. Lead researcher of the Konkuk study, Dr. 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.” Until now!

Research found that a husband’s height impacts overall marriage satisfaction.

There are a multitude of factors that impact the success of a relationship, but rarely is something as superficial as height a topic that is explored, but clearly it bears looking into.

For the Konkuk study, 7,850 women gave their height and their partner’s height and answered a questionnaire about the status and health of their relationship. While the reason that women are attracted to tall men has been studied, what happens after the relationship is established hasn’t been explored.

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Women have an evolutionary preference for tall men, which was an important factor in the results.

Lead researcher of the Konkuk study, Dr. Sohn, wrote, “One is the intrinsic value of height; that is, women simply like tall men, while unable to say why. This is similar to people favoring fatty, salty, and sugary foods without knowing exactly why: such foods are essential to survival, but were scarce as humans evolved. Hence, craving such food increased reproductive fitness in the past. Similarly, the female preference for male height increased women’s reproductive fitness.”

For the Rice study, 455 men with an average height of 5’8″ and 470 women with an average height of 5’4″ were questioned throughout the United States. They found that 13.5% of men only wanted to be with women who were shorter than they were, whereas 48.9% of women wanted to have a relationship with someone who was taller than they were.

Michael Emerson, a Professor of Sociology, co-director of Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, and co-author of the study, said, “However, our study suggests that for physical features such as height, the similarity is not the dominant rule, especially with females.”

The second part of the Rice study included 54 men with an average height of 5’9″ and 131 women with an average height of 5’4″. In this part of the study, the participants were from a United States university, and they answered open-ended questions in an online survey. They found similar results in the first part of the study: 37% of males wanted to be with shorter females, while 55% of women wanted to marry taller men.

The study suggested that this preference is because women feel protected and feminine when their partner is taller than they are. One of the female participants at 5’3″ said, “As the girl, I like to feel delicate and secure at the same time. Something just feels weird in thinking about looking ‘down’ into my man’s eyes. There is also something to be said about being able to wear shoes with high heels and still being shorter. I also want to be able to hug him with my arms reaching up and around his neck.”

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Height was only shown to be a factor in relationship satisfaction during the first 18 years of marriage.

Since (by evolutionary standards) women with taller husbands viewed their mate as elite in terms of reproduction, that led to viewing the relationship in a more positive light. Unfortunately, that bright view dims over time, and after 18 years, a wife with a tall husband is as happy as a couple of the same height or where the wife is taller.

Still, having extra happiness in a marriage for 18 years is impressive — not even Cinderella had that. There’s a caveat, of course. Just like with any fairy tale, this extra boost of happiness that comes from a height discrepancy only lasts 18 years, which seems directly linked to childbearing years, although that was never explicitly stated. But still, 18 years isn’t too shabby, and not even a fairy godmother could guarantee more years of intense happiness than that.

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George Yancey is a professor of Sociology at the University of North Texas. He’s the Rice University study’s leader and believes, “The masculine ability to offer physical protection is clearly connected to the gender stereotype of men as protectors. And in a society that encourages men to be dominant and women to be submissive, having the image of tall men hovering over short women reinforces this value.”

So, height is an asset for men while being a shortcoming for women because it makes them more vulnerable. The Rice study theorized that having a taller man and a shorter woman feeds into traditional societal stereotypes.

This could link to the evolutionary preference, as well. Women, throughout history, have felt safer with someone bigger. So, through our evolution, we have come to prefer men of bigger stature and presence, thus making a relationship last longer because the woman feels protected and the man’s basic instinct of protection is satisfied. It would stand to reason to that women would want to produce larger offspring as a result.

Times have certainly changed, and the need for protection isn’t what it used to be. But if you’ve wondered why your “type” includes someone who towers over you, it sounds like evolution is to blame. And when it comes right down to it, physical attraction plays a huge role in relationship satisfaction, so this all falls into place.

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Christine Schoenwald is a writer, performer, and astrology lover. She’s had articles in The Los Angeles Times, Salon, and Woman’s Day.