Which dance moves impress women most?
By Christopher Ingraham
A group of evolutionary biologists looked at the science of bump and grind, and they say they figured out exactly which dance movements catch a woman’s eye.
Researchers at Northumbria University and the University of Gottingen wanted to know what women look for in a dance partner, since “dancing ability, particularly that of men, may serve as a signal of mate quality.” But isolating specific dance moves is difficult — facial attractiveness, body shape and even perceived socioeconomic status play a role in how people judge the dancing ability of their peers.
So the researchers set up an experiment: They recruited 30 men to dance to a drumbeat for 30 seconds. The men were given no specific instructions on how to dance, and their movements were recorded via a sophisticated motion-capture system. Each dancer’s 30-second routine was then used to animate a “featureless, gender-neutral” computer-generated avatar. Researchers asked 37 women to view each of the dancing avatars and rate their performance on a seven-point scale.
They found that women rated dancers higher when they showed larger and more variable movements of the head, neck and torso. Speed of leg movements mattered, too, particularly bending and twisting of the right knee.