I don’t consider myself a dancer, but I’m happy to hit the dance floor with a bunch of my girls. When I was in college, we had ridiculous dance parties all the time. As I approach my late 20s, I find that much of the dancing happens at weddings. But do you know what else I have noticed about all this dancing? A lot of guys aren’t that comfortable with it. It’s all well and good during the silly group dances, and everyone will jump around and shout the lyrics to Bon Jovi. But something with a slower tempo clears the floor of unattached men. I have approached these guys before, asking if it isn’t a little sad to see women swaying together in a group. I have often heard the response that the men “can’t dance.”
“Everybody can slow dance,” I tell them. “We don’t care, we give you credit for asking and trying.” (If you’re curious, this sort of guilt coupled with pulling them out to the dance floor works pretty well.) And while this is true—confidence will take you pretty far—let’s take a look at whether dancing skills work for or against us.
Over the course of a study, Peter Lovatt found a connection between dance moves and testosterone levels. Lovatt is a psychology professor in England and has earned the nickname of “Dr. Dance” through his study of, you guessed it—dancing. He filmed people dancing and turned it into a silhouette—viewers judged attractiveness on dancing alone. Women were shown male dancers and ranked how attractive they found each one. Men were shown female dancers and did the same thing. Lovatt’s researchers also measured each dancer’s ring and index fingers. It is believed that there is a connection between these measurements and the amount of testosterone someone was exposed to in the womb. If the ring finger is longer than the index finger, it indicates a higher amount of prenatal testosterone.
The men with the highest testosterone levels were rated the most attractive for their dancing, while the women rated most attractive had the lowest testosterone levels of all the women involved in the study. This correlates nicely with the idea that we are looking for a good biological fit in order to continue the species. So we’re attracted to good dancers because they are showing us what great babies they would create. (Or, you know, how great they would be in bed. Whichever.)
So, are you out of luck if you’re a bad dancer? No. All hope is not lost! Men with high testosterone who danced in larger, more complex movements were ranked as more attractive. The men with lower testosterone who attempted the same large movements did not receive the same positive ranking. (They came across as dominant, alpha male types—the women were not impressed.)
As with the testosterone levels, there was an opposite effect with female dancers. The women with lower testosterone levels, who were viewed as more attractive by male viewers, used more subtle movements. Women with more testosterone used larger movements—which can come across as uncoordinated.
What can we take away from this? Ladies, we’re better off keeping our dancing subtle. And guys, unless you know you’ve got sweet moves, you should keep it under control as well. (Unless we’re talking about that Bon Jovi sing-along…that’s a whole different game.) Don’t be afraid to dance, though! Get out there and shake it.
