According to a new study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, people equate physical height with feelings of cooperation, generosity, and virtue. Researchers performed a number of experiments proving that people who had ridden up escalators or walked up stairs were nicer than those that had ridden or walked down.

That's all well and good, but I live in a fifth floor walk-up and I'm still totally a jerk. How do you explain that? Huh, science?

[Scientific American, image via Shutterstock]