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posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday March 26 2014, @11:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the everybody-look-at-your-hands dept.

Papas Fritas writes:

The Washington Post reports that a group of evolutionary biologists have looked at the science of bump and grind, and say they have figured out exactly which dance movements catch a woman's eye. Researchers set up the experiment as follows: they recruited 30 men to dance to a core drum beat for 30 seconds. The dancers were given no specific instructions on how to dance beforehand, 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 then asked 37 women to view each of the dancing avatars and rate their performance on a seven-point scale.

The results: Women rated dancers higher when they showed larger and more variable movements of the head, neck and torso (PDF). Speed of leg movements mattered too, particularly bending and twisting of the right knee. Going beyond the dance floor, these findings could demonstrate that men's dance moves could carry "honest signals of traits such as health, fitness, genetic quality and developmental history." No word yet on whether similar findings hold true for men's assessments of women's dancing ability as an indication of their genetic quality and fitness.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by SleazyRidr on Wednesday March 26 2014, @02:39PM

    by SleazyRidr (882) on Wednesday March 26 2014, @02:39PM (#21525)

    I'll let you in on a secret: none of us are actually particularly good at dancing. Sure if you go to a country-western bar you need to know the moves to the 2-step, but most clubs no one gives a shit. If you fall down people will just think that you're drunk and they won't care because they're drunk too!

    Also; I see the /. tradition of not reading the article has transferred across to here. Nowhere in the study does it say that you have to be coordinated. "Larger and more variable movements of the head, neck and torso." Can you move those three body parts? If you can, go do it! If not, go to the hospital as you need help.

    Final comment: urza9814 mentioned in a sister post to yours that he could never get into dancing at clubs playing top40 music but then he found punk/metal clubs where he felt a lot more into the music and dancing came more naturally. Maybe you could try going to a few different places and see if any of them feel more comfortable to you.

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  • (Score: 1) by Taibhsear on Wednesday March 26 2014, @03:14PM

    by Taibhsear (1464) on Wednesday March 26 2014, @03:14PM (#21545)

    If you fall down people will just think that you're drunk and they won't care because they're drunk too!

    Said no bouncer ever.

    • (Score: 2) by SleazyRidr on Wednesday March 26 2014, @07:19PM

      by SleazyRidr (882) on Wednesday March 26 2014, @07:19PM (#21686)

      They don't kick people out for being drunk. They kick people out for being violent or obnoxious. For all the stories I've heard of people being kicked out for "no good reason" I've never seen someone get kicked out of a bar who wasn't one of those two; and I've been in a lot of bars.