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.
But how to quantify what’s going on in each video? The researchers developed a taxonomy of individual dance moves. They isolated three key body regions and the main joints within — the central body, including the neck and torso; the legs, including the knees, hips and ankles; and the arms, including the shoulders, elbows and wrists. For each dancer, they measured the degree and type of movement at each joint — speed, size and variety of movements like bending, twisting and tilting.