Slashdot Mirror
Researchers Discover Irresistible Dance Moves
sciencehabit writes "To find out if certain dance moves are more attractive to women than others, researchers recruited a bunch of college guys and used motion-capture to create avatars of them dancing. When women watched the avatars (2 videos included in story), the men they found most attractive were those who kept their heads and torsos moving without flailing their arms and legs. The researchers say dancing is thus an honest signal to women of the man's strength and health, just as it is in crabs and hummingbirds, who also move in special ways to attract mates."
> without flailing their arms and legs
That's all well and good for impressing the ladies, but how then am I supposed to scare of my competition?
Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
Common sense is neither common nor sensical. Common sense says that heavier objects fall faster. Common sense says that a son of an islamic black diplomat must be islamic and can't be american. Common sense says that man can't be descended from apes. Science is as much about proving common sense to be wrong as it is about discovering the rare occurences it is correct.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
If this article is any indication, it sounds like Will Farrell and Chris Kattan should be the most irresistible men on the planet.
Baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
"Kept their heads and torsos moving without flailing their arms and legs" seems useful in adapting our ways to attracting mates, though. Seems like the moves might be quite doable while sitting on a couch.
One that hath name thou can not otter
My mother asked me why our generation never came up with any dances. Her generation had the Twist, the Mashed Potato, etc.
I replied that Micheal Jackson killed dance. Nobody else could move like him, so we all gave up and just mosh and twitch randomly.
This sort of study might be interesting but it seems clear that the article and one of the quoted anthropologists are assuming that this is a human universal or close to that. But this study was done in a single country with a small group of people. Without a lot more detail it isn't possible to tell if this is an ingrained preference or is culturally driven. Overarching conclusions from interesting but not broad studies like this give ev psych and anthropology a bad name.