The moves that make men attractive to women

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http://vnexpress.net/GL/Khoa-hoc/2010/09/3BA204DE/

từ Economist số mới ra

http://www.economist.com/node/16990757?story_id=16990757

The women rated big movements in these three planes for both the head and the trunk as the most attractive. However, there was an ad***ional factor, says Dr Neave. Headbanging (sorry, Motörhead fans) was simply not attractive: although it would show a large amplitude of movement in one plane it would not show the variability of movement that seems to appeal to women. Choreographers have told Dr Neave that movements in these three planes comes from strength and suppleness, so they would help to indicate a genetically fit male.

One curiosity was that, statistically, the speed of movement of the right knee also appeared to be important in signalling dance quality. Dr Neave, however, believes this may simply result from 80% of men being right footed, and so tending to place more weight on their left foot in order to demonstrate leg-waggling prowess with the right one.


Strictly in the moves

Kristofor McCarty, a scientist who was also involved in the study, believes the work is the first scientific step towards understanding the biology and culture of dance. The scientists think that the core moves of an attractive dance may be universal, but that many cultures will have variations. For instance, in places where folk dances require the torso to be rigid, one would expect to find more emphasis put on the movement of the feet or head.

As for Dr Neave, he says that at 46 his dancing days are over. Nonetheless he remains interested enough *****spect that physically attractive males are better dancers and also wonders whether it is possible to detect a person’s age from the quality of their dancing. If he can recruit enough gay men, he would also like to see if they make better dancers.

And then there are the ***ual signals from female movement to explore. Dr Neave has started to look (in the scientific sense) at women in high heels and ask whether high-heeled avatars are more attractive to men. Some have speculated that the attractiveness of high heels is down to the effect they create of longer legs or a youthful gait, or that high heels simply make a woman’s bum wobble. Avatars, having standard legs and no wobbly bits, should therefore be able to solve that perpetual male mystery: why do women buy shoes that they cannot walk in?