A few years back, popular songbird Shakira released a song titled "Hips Don't Lie". Now it has turned out that the song, among other related ones, is trying to pass across an important message that women who know how to move their hips and swing their arms during dances are simply revealing their ovulation status and showing off their reproductive qualities to men. This fact was the conclusion of a study published in the journal Scientific Report where 39 female dancers were rated by 200 reviewers - 57 men and 143 women, on a 7-point scale of extremely good to extremely bad. The researchers found that sexy dances stem from how well a woman can swing her hips and move her arms.
This is a follow-up to an earlier study on male dances
The female dancers were just picked at random and then asked to dance as naturally as possible as if they were alone or in some party where no attention was paid to them. Their dance moves were then recorded with a motion-capture technology camera which converted the dancers to mere avatar shapes on the screen without identifying the personal features of each dancer.
The research was led by Dr. Nick Neave, an associate professor of psychology at Northumbria University in England, as a follow-up study to an earlier study carried out in 2011, the New York Times wrote. In the earlier study, the researchers found that when men dance, their body moves signal vigor and strength because of the way they move their upper torso - and these dance moves attract women who interpret the men as risk-takers with strong genetic traits.
Women use dances as sexual attraction and to ward off rivals
In the current study, the researchers found that men interpret patterned hip movements and limbs symmetry in women dances as indicative of calling attention to their child-bearing capabilities sexual willingness, while also sending a message to female rivals to keep off their man. Meanwhile, researchers also discovered that early man used dances as a form of courtship, sexual attractiveness and competition, the Scientific American wrote.
Dr. Neave and his team of researchers are now seeking to establish a relationship between the attractiveness of dances to the personality, ovulation status, overall health, and age of women. They are also trying to see if culture and mating preferences impact on how women dance and on how men perceive the messages of dances.
