What pattern of fist pumping and hip swaying makes the ladies swoon over dudes? Science is here to tell us!
One researcher wanted to see whether humans move in the same way animals in the wild do when attracting potential mates.
[Dr Nick Neave, an evolutionary psychologist,] asked young men who were not professional dancers, to dance in a laboratory to a very basic drum rhythm and their movements with 12 cameras. These movements were then converted into a computer-generated cartoon – an avatar – which women rated on a scale of one to seven. He was surprised by the results.
“We thought that people’s arms and legs would be really important. The kind of expressive gestures the hands [make], for example. But in fact this was not the case,” he said. We found that (women paid more attention to) the core body region: the torso, the neck, the head.” Movements that went down terribly were twitchy and repetitive – so called “Dad dancing”.
And while the researchers didn’t study how members of the same-sex interpret these dance moves, I can tell you from person experience that, hands down, shoving your ass into my crotch does not impress.
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Hilarious
Yep I see plenty of people tribal dancing through the streets everyday.
Talk about useless studies. We haven’t cured cancer yet, but lets find out how hard you get when I shake my head around.
Gett
I think this is a totally interesting and valid study and hope they do a male male one
Charlie Jackpot
The guy in the baseball cap to my house please
RJ
@Hilarious
Do you suggest an evolutionary psychologist abandon research that interests him to research something outside of his field? Perhaps this study has no relevant use, but his field is attempting to answer some questions that may turn out to be very essential:
Why do we behave the way we do? What’s the cause and is it necessary?
Doing background on this study, Dr Nick Neave isn’t the lead researcher. He is supervising one of his PhD students who is undergoing the research, most likely as a part of his thesis/dissertation.
RomanHans
Meanwhile, I haven’t been out of my house in thirty years, and I STILL know who both those guys in the photo are.
RobInNYC
I think the guy on the right goes to my gym! Always found him delicious!
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@RobInNYC: A good way to start a conversation with him is to offer to show him exactaly how to use some of the machines in the gym……….. :p
seattle jim
The hot guy on the left looks like Eric Leven, the blogger. http://knucklecrack.blogspot.com/
Hilarious
@RJ: Find out why people beat their kids. Find out why there are pedophiles in the world. Find out why criminals behave the way they do.
Useless study.
dvd-junkie
@seattle jim: Yep, definitely him.
Uppity
The avatar clip is on youtube and it’s hilarious; how anybody could find that dancing attractive is beyond me.
Bareback Hussein Osama
@Hilarious: Those aren’t the research domains of evolutionary biologists. It’s like telling scientists to stop working on medical treatments for rare diseases so they can focus on the psychological underpinnings of obesity.
Bareback Hussein Osama
Darn, I meant “evolutionary psychologists.”
Freddie
Eric Leven could dance worse than Elaine on ‘Seinfeld’ and I’d be turned on. Fortunately, he doesn’t.