Are you short and wish you were taller? Well, according to a new study, you are more likely to have “Dark Triad” personality traits.

The study, published in Personality and Individual Differences, explains that a Dark Triad refers to three personality traits: psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism.

Researchers found that those who are short may engage in hostile behaviours in an attempt to offset their height disadvantage and therefore be more likely to have those Dark Triad traits.

“Shorter people, especially those who wish they were taller, are more characterised by traits that are likely to make them show-off, be confrontational, and interested in power,” study author Peter K. Jonason told PsyPost.

Researchers explained that shorter people tend to try and find a psychological advantage to level the playing field as they may be more physically inferior, therefore showing more psychopathic tendencies.

“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 said.

The study also found that these dark traits applied to short people regardless of gender.

“We expected these relationships to be stronger in men given evolutionary and Freudian considerations, but we found only scant evidence for differentiation of these correlations by sex,” Jonason added.