Shake it Like A (Symmetrical) Salt Shaker

Let's face it, some of you avoid the clubs because you dance like Elaine from Seinfield. Thumbs akimbo, legs kicking wildly without tangible grasp of rhythmic co-ordination, yours is a "full-bodied dry heave set to music" according to George Costanza. In the mating dance of life, Elaine gets stuck with the Puddy's of the world, and a few local computer scientists have an idea why that is.

We'd like to continue by warning you that what they found will neither make you a better dancer, nor more successful at attracting others. For those of you still reading at this point, what these UW researchers found was that dancing helps reveal bodily symmetry in people. Whether your dance of choice is the texas two-step, a minimalist shuffle, or all-out clowning, it offers prospective suitors implicit data about your desirability as a mate. Symmetry, especially within human faces, has long been regarded as a main ingredient in human attraction, and the importance of symmetry doesn't stop at your neck.

What is most interesting about this particular study (which is being published in this month's edition of Nature) is that they stripped away all the other social identifiers for attractiveness, including gender, age, clothing and general body type (large, skinny, etc). Using motion capture software, they created computerized dancers that look vaguely like marionettes, and asked people to rate which dancers they preferred. The results were that regardless of dance style, "dancers" with more symmetrical bodies were rated higher. So unless you plan to undertake some very serious plastic surgery, all the Arthur Murray classes in the world won't solve the problem of that larger left foot you've had since birth.