Certain Dance Moves Can Attract Women
Men who hope to attract women on the dance floor can learn moves that answer the female mating drive.
Psychologists have identified specific dance moves that arouse female interest, and all are central body motions.
Nick Neave of Northumbria University in Newcastle-upon-Tyne filmed 19 men between the ages 18 and 35 in a lab dancing to a standard disco beat.
The men wore reflective markers that studded their bodies and were filmed by 12 3D cameras. The footage was transformed into a dancing animated figure that was faceless and genderless.
There were 37 young heterosexual women who were shown 15-second clips of the animations and were asked to judge which dance movements were the most attractive.
There were eight "movement variables" that were determined to be attractive for women.
Those moves included movements of the head, neck and torso, as well as faster bending and twisting movements of their right knee.
The "bad" dancers tended to be stiff and stomp.
"Men all over the world will be interested to know what moves they can throw to attract women," Neave told AFP news.
"We now know which area of the body females are looking at when they are making a judgment about male dance attractiveness. If a man knows what the key moves are, he can get some training and improve his chances of attracting a female through his dance style."
He said the experiment broke new ground because of the neutrality of the animations, which gave no clues into how attractive the man’s face or clothing was.
Other studies have also found a preference among women for males who are strong and vigorous and skilled in their motor movements.
These are all part of a classic mating quest for the "right" genetic material.
"My guess is that there will be wide cultural variability about the way people dance, but the interest in the core body movements will be the same," said Neave in a phone interview with AFP news.
"The movement of the trunk, the neck and the shoulders give out signals of strength, suppleness and vitality."
He said he was eager to try the experiment in reverse, creating female animations for men to judge the performance.
The study was published on Wednesday in journal Biology Letters.
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