Wanna be sexy? Wiggling your hips as important as woman’s body shape, new study suggests
Strutting around in a 'sexy way' is as important to making a woman look attractive as the shape of her body, a new study has found.
According to research by Portsmouth University, beauty won’t get you anywhere if you don’t know how to move with grace.
The study found specific ways of walking – such as wiggling your hips and taking tiny steps – are likely to make a woman look sexier.
Evolutionary psychologist Dr Ed Morrison, who carried out the research, said: “A combination of small waist, rounded hips and bottom, and a slim figure have long been reported to be important in women's attractiveness, but it turns out the way a woman moves is as important.
"Most previous research into what makes a body attractive has relied on photographs, but in real life we usually see a potential mate moving. Motion is also crucial in courtship behaviors like dancing.
"Research shows that we are more likely to find a woman attractive if she wiggles her hips and takes small steps.”
Morrison explained how his study is important to determine what makes a woman universally attractive given parameters of physical beauty are never constant.
"Because body shape preferences vary across cultures and through history, the study aimed to find out if you take away the face, what sort of clues would people use to gauge attractiveness,” he said.
"Motion capture allows us to isolate movement from body shape and compare the relative importance of the two."
The study was carried out by gathering 37 women with different body types and who were all wearing just leggings and t-shirts.
Reflective markers were then placed along their bodies before they were filmed walking on a treadmill.
The footage was then stripped of all features so only the reflective points were visible.10-second clips were compiled and judged by 14 women and 11 men on a scale from one (not attractive) to seven (very attractive).
The test was repeated three times and on all occasions what turned out to be the most appealing were a body mass index of 19 to 23 and a smaller hip to waist ratio.
"The results suggested that movement is as important as static measurements in gauging attractiveness, which was surprising because everyday experience suggests you can see easily how attractive someone is from a photograph," Dr Morrison said.
He added more research must be carried out to see whether movements varied between cultures and if sexy motions could be faked.
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