Napoleon complex

[2] He was of average height among all men in France, but was much shorter than the elite soldiers, aristocrats and high officials that he met with.

[4][5] Other historians assert that he was 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 metres) because he was measured on Saint Helena 28 years after the French adopted the metric system.

[7] In 2018, evolutionary psychologist Mark van Vugt and his team at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam found evidence for the Napoleon complex in human males.

Their evolutionary psychology hypothesis argues that in competitive situations when males, human or nonhuman, receive cues that they are physically outcompeted, the Napoleon complex psychology kicks in: physically weaker males should adopt alternative behavioral strategies to level the playing field, including showing indirect aggression and coalition building.

University of Central Lancashire lecturer Mike Eslea commented that "when people see a short man being aggressive, they are likely to think it is due to his size, simply because that attribute is obvious and grabs their attention".

The study was controlled for potential effects of gender and socioeconomic status, and found that "no significant differences in personality functioning or aspects of daily living were found which could be attributable to height";[11] this functioning included generalizations associated with the Napoleon complex, such as risk-taking behaviours.