If you go to a dog park, you see an enormous variation in the height of dogs and a Great Dane might easily be more than ten times bigger than a toy poodle.
The difference in height between tall and short adult people is relatively unimpressive and usually well under 20%. So in the example of a 6’4” person and a 5’8 person, the difference is about 10%. Why does it make an impression at all? Because you see with your eyes, at the level they are from the ground.
How many seven-footers do you see around? People see one and reasonably say to themselves, “That guy is pretty tall.” And when it comes to women, while they exist, I don’t recall personally encountering anyone that tall, or even 6’ 10". 6’ 6" or so, sure.
I don’t think we’re in disagreement.
When I said "“the same percentage above the average” I wasn’t referring to percentiles, but per cent of height (and weight) above the average.
Your weight calculator says that the average weight for men (the 50th percentile) is 190 pounds. Twenty per cent of that is 38 pounds. So 20% above average is 228 pounds (which is at the 78th percentile).
And the height calculator says the the 50th percentile for height is 5’9.25". Twenty per cent of this is 13.85". So 20% above average is 6’11", which is at the 99th-plus percentile.
Your data supports Achenbach’s suggestion (although he did differ on the average weight, 180 vice 190): Men 20% taller than the average are much more rare than men 20% heavier than average. So his conclusion (that it’s the rarity, not the magnitude that we notice) makes sense to me.
6’1" is “handsome tall”. 6’9" is “people spit out their food and say HOLY SHIT!” tall.
Folks are a bit taller now than my generation (born in 1949.) I’m 6’ 4", and it often seems that shorter-than-average people believe that tall people look down, figuratively, on them. I never did see shorter folks as inferior in any way, except in ability to reach the top shelves without a step-stool.
A long time ago, I dated a girl who said she was 5’ 12", but the one I married 44 years ago, is 5’ 4".
Harry Nilsson did a funny song called “Jesus Christ, You’re Tall.” I’ll not link to it, but you can probably find it on Youtube.
We had a neighbor who was 6’11" and his son grew to the same height. His wife and one daughter were 6’ even, while the other daughter was 6’5". She was a good friend of my daughter’s and one time she wore a T-shirt at our house that said, “I’m only 4’29” ".
Back when he was in HS, I once saw Wilt Chamberlain exiting a VW, along with 3 other tall men. That was quite a sight. Getting back to the OP, I think it is a question of rarity. You just don’t expect men over 6’6" or women over 6’.
It also depends on your surroundings. I’m 6’2"ish. When I’m back in the Midwest, I’m like average tall. It doesn’t really register when someone is taller there. When I’m here in LA, everyone is tiny. So just seeing someone my size is definitely noticable/novel.
Some say height peaked 30-40 years ago.
This may also be caused by the vertical/horizontal optical illusion
One thing I have noticed is that with two people of the same height, the more slender one appears taller (until you put them side by side).
True. My Mid-dau is actually an inch taller than me, but some thicker. Every one thinks I’m taller, til we prove it.
100% This.I’m 6’2 and some (I’ve shrunk a bit from about 6’4). When I encounter someone taller than me it sort of freaks me out. If there are two or three taller than me it’s really weird.
This is the answer I think. When we say (for example) someone has wide set eyes, we are talking about a difference of fractions of an inch, yet we notice because we are highly attuned to how people look.
Tall women seem very tall to me; the difference between a 5’8 woman and 5’5 seems like night and day, even though it’s objectively a tiny difference.
And it’s funny how comparisons to the mean color our perceptions.
For example, it can be quite a surprise to see two friends who are, say 5’9, one male, one female, together, and notice that they are the same height. In my mind, the male friend was in an “average-ish” bucket and the woman was in the “pretty tall” bucket and my brain has to do a momentary “Huh.”
Another aspect though (and this might be hijacking a shade) is that I think women have better posture on average. They seem less likely to slouch IME. So a woman will often look taller than a man of the same height and yes I’m excluding when women wear heels 
Are you me?
Though whenever I get measured and weighed at a doctor’s office late in the day they always seem to measure 6’ 2"…that explains why I have to adjust the rear view mirror every morning.
I’ll echo what other reasonably tall folks are saying: I’m not used to seeing people who are even at my same eye-level so they seem really tall.
ETA: A tip for tall photographers: to take good portraits get the camera to chest height or belly height. Bonus tip for everyone: to get really nice photos of kids, get down to their level.
My wife and her sister are both barely over 5 feet tall. One day we were at some place where I was taking photos and her sister mentioned how I must see things differently from them–I quickly snapped a photo of the two of them from my eye level and showed them. They laughed and said “Wow, we look like children!” But it really was an accurate representation of what things look like through my eyes.
When I was a child myself, I noticed that, no matter how big I got, kids my own age were “normal height,” while the kids younger than I were “little kids” and the kids older than I were “big kids.”
I remember reading (perhaps in Life magazine) that the tallest man in the world at that time (mid 1960s?), over 7 feet, I think, drove an (original-style) VW Beetle.
The “secret” was that he had removed the driver’s seat and sat in the back seat.
ETA: Found a cite:
Hite came down Main Street driving his specialized Volkswagen from the back seat. If you’re 8 feet tall and driving a Volkswagen, you pretty much have to drive it from the back seat. There was no roof on the vehicle either, as he would have never fit in it in the first place.
I can’t imagine how much it would suck to be that tall. Even being “only” 7’ tall would be a tremendous PITA.
Yeah, always looking down on people and mindful of ceilings. When you are young or Michael J. Fox, you are always looking up.
Having to duck every time you walked through a door would be a nightmare.
My brother is 6’ 4", his wife is 6’, and their son is 6’ 1".
My brother spent two years in China for work. Twice he took his wife and son on vacations to China. They were treated like freaks, with people asking to get pictures taken with them. They played along.