Gait

Gait is a person's manner of walking. How attractive a person's gait is depends on many important factors such as leg, feet, and spine bone straightness, generally/sexually attractive armpit odor, technique, shoulder width, forearm length, torso length, height, upright posture, physical strength, emotional state, intentions, and rhythm. Women more than men discriminate between strong and weak walkers when assessing attractiveness of male gait, though this varies by culture. Altering of the human female gait through use of high heels is also likely a female sexual strategy, that enhances attractiveness through imitation of a lordotic (swayback) mating posture, found also in female lower primates. The same posing of the arched spine also makes twerking a particularly sexually provocative dance.

Gait technique

People access gait consciously and subconsciously to attempt to determine interpersonal characteristics, (personality, social status, health etc.) to varying degrees of accuracy. Psychopaths are more accurate at perceiving potential victim's vulnerability based on gait cues. Autists also generally have a more awkward gait compared to neurotypicals. The awkwardness (lack of rythm) is especially noticeable using motion tracking software.

Studies on gait and attractiveness using motion capture technology, show the most attractive male gait when viewed from the front or behind, advertises a combination of vigor, power, and determination. The motion capture technology used at the Bio Motion Lab, shows attractive male gaits have 4 key things in common

• 1. A perfectly upright posture
• 2. One forearm swinging vigorously while the other remains nearly still in comparison. (see high status gait video). This shifts most of the body's weight to one side forcing the person to have to slightly "bounce" on each step, creating a swaggering appearance. (The faster the walk the more the non-vigorous forearm swings, although this forearm should still noticeably lag behind the vigorous forearm.)
• 3. the leg on the vigorous forearm side does not not bend at the knee, during extension and remains near stiff like a peg leg, while the other leg bends at the knee during the extension and extends further than the stiff leg (This is only when walking slowly! When walking fast the stiff leg should bend at the knee and extend, however, slightly less than the vigorous leg.)
• 4. A slight, twisting pelvis thrust to the left when, stepping and extending with the left leg, and a slight twisting pelvis thrust to the right when stepping and extending the right leg. (This is arguably the hardest pat of a max swaggering gait, as us men only really pelvis thrust during masturbation, intercourse or when dancing. So a small pelvic thrust with each step is totally foreign to most men, and would likely be difficult for even the most co-ordinated of us.)

A study on body motion cues to predict the intentions of others was done to better understand how intentions and traits are perceived from body movement. The researchers conducted two experiments to investigate whether the perceived traits of actors could be determined from their body motion, and whether these traits were associated with their perceived intentions. They first recorded body motions from 26 professional actors, who were instructed to move in a “hero”-like or a “villain”-like manner. In the first experiment, 190 participants viewed individual video recordings of these actors and were required to provide ratings to the body motion stimuli along a series of different cognitive dimensions (intentions, attractiveness, dominance, trustworthiness, and distinctiveness). The intersubject ratings across observers were highly consistent, suggesting that social traits are readily determined from body motion.

Moreover, correlational analyses between these ratings revealed consistent associations across traits, for example, that perceived “good” intentions were associated with higher ratings of attractiveness and dominance. The results of Experiment 2 revealed distinct body motions that were readily associated with the perception of either “good” or “bad” intentions. Moreover, regression analyses revealed that these ratings accurately predicted the perception of the portrayed character type. These findings indicate that intentions and social traits are communicated effectively via specific sets of body motion features.

Swaggering gait front

This max attractiveness walk is exceptionally difficult to pull off. Hence the lengthy and in depth explanation above. The walker makes this look effortless though.

Bone curvature

Women seem to unanimously prefer men with perfectly straight bones, and actively antagonize men with curved bones. However women are more forgiving of curve boned men if said men also happen to be tall.

Scoliosis

Sideways curvature of the spine (making the person look like he or she is leaning even while standing up straight). All spine curvature, not just sideways is often stated to be scoliosis among the general public, with actual scoliosis (sideways curvature) being the most unattractive spine type. There are multiple variations of spine curvature, the main 5 being a normal spine (perfectly straight), lordosis (bottom of the spine curves inward). This spine shape creates the illusion of a more muscular back, as well as a more protruding buttocks. Essentially a more androgynous skeleton. Kyphosis (top of the spine curves outward) This gives the illusion of a more muscular but hunched over back. Flat back (both bottom and top of the spine moderately curve outward). Gives the appearance of a hunchback with no illusion of more muscularity. Sway back (bottom of the spine curves inward, while the top of the spine curves outward). Gives the appearance of both a hunchback and a protruded buttocks. The various spine shapes ultimately play a large role in how one's gait as well as standing stance is perceived by others.

Leg bones

Pigeon toes is a term referring to feet that curve inward. This enhances the overall femininity of the skeleton, weather male or female. Feet that curve outward appear adult and enhance the overall masculinity of the skeleton. Bowed legs are legs that curve outward. This leg shape makes the person appear to be slightly sitting even when standing straight up. Knock knees are when the legs curve inward. This makes the skeleton appear more childlike and less adult.

Running

The same rules of gait attractiveness apply to running as well. The exaggeratedly sexually dimorphic run (same technique as the walk) is most attractive from the front and back, with jogging being more attractive than a sprint, and a "averaged" or "neutral" jog or sprint being most attractive when viewed from the side.

Dancing

Studies on physical strength and dance attractiveness show a positive relationship between mens hand grip strength and dance attractiveness. stronger men that display larger, more variable and faster arm movements are rated as better dancers. Also hand grip strength is positively correlated with reproductive success.

• A study found strong strong positive associations between symmetry and dancing ability, and these associations were stronger in men than in women. In addition, women rate dances by symmetrical men relatively more positively than do men, and more-symmetrical men value symmetry in women dancers more than do less-symmetrical men.

• Women are most attracted to male dancers whom have a thrill and adventure seeking, dis inhibited, boredom susceptible personality.

• High-masculine dancers were judged higher on attractiveness around ovulation than on other cycle days, whilst no such perceptual difference was found for low-masculine dancers.

• A study was actually done on what freestyle (non-choreographed) male dance moves are actually attractive to women. By using cutting-edge motion-capture technology, the researchers found that the more varied and vigorous a mans movements in the central body regions (head, neck and torso) as well as higher speed of right knee movements, the more attractive women rated the man's dancing, with 80% of the variance in attractiveness related to only these factors. In layman's terms, head banging and head thrusting, as well as stretching the neck back and forth rhythmically is attractive to women. Puffing out the chest and then back in and then back out is attractive to women (basically twerking but with the chest), flexing the abdominal muscles rhythmically in a wave like motion is attractive to women. Moving the shoulders back and forth (in order to move the upper torso) is attractive to women, and thrusting with the pelvis is attractive to women (in order to move the lower torso). rhythmically bending the right knee in accordance to the beat is attractive to women. Also a faster, more energetic song, will lead to a more attractive male dancer due to movement being more vigorous. A well choreographed routine using these movements would elicit super-stimulus in women (be extremely attractive). Also as with walking and running gait, exaggerated technique should be most attractive when viewed from the front and back, and a comparatively more "averaged" or "neutral" technique (same moves though) most attractive when viewed from the side.

Fighting

Ritualized, choreographed "play" fighting looks attractive for both men and women, hence the international popularity of sports entertainment like professional wrestling. However actual fighting for example, street fights are seen as either unattractive or neutral, due to the sloppy execution and focus on legitimate injury, over finesse and style. Still, winning fights increases reproductive success even when fights are staged, and even the losers attain more reproductive success than non competitors. This is only for males though. As for females, any athletic activity, dramatically reduces chances of ever having children (which makes athletic males exceptionally rare due to athletic genes almost only being passed down from the male lineage).

A study done in 2009 investigated the reproductive success of men competing in a traditional ritual fight, Sereer wrestling, the first study of its kind. Involvement in wrestling had a significant positive effect on men’s number of offspring and a marginally significant effect on polygyny, controlling for age, body condition and socio‐economic status. These positive effects suggest that being involved in wrestling competition provides prestige, facilitating access to mates and thereby increasing fecundity. However, when women were interviewed on their preference concerning qualities of potential mates, the quality ‘being involved in wrestling competition’ was poorly ranked. This discrepancy may arise either from deceptive reports or from discordance between parents and daughters in the choice of a husband. Another possible explanation of this discrepancy between female preferences and mating success may be that selection is not acting through female choices, but rather through male–male competition: the prestige acquired by wrestlers may dissuade other men from competing for the same female.

Smell

A study done in 20011 showed that armpit odor pleasantness was the single attribute that consistently predicted attractiveness of nonverbal behavior. In laymen's terms the better smelling the mans armpits the more attractive, his gait, as well as any other nonverbal movement, and armpit smell is the most important factor of nonverbal attractiveness. One study found pine is an objectively, generally attractive smell. 3 studies found the smell of flowers to be sexually attractive to women.

See also

• Fisherian runaway
• Aging
• Lookism
• Looks theory
• Aesthetics
• Halo effect
• Looksmaxxing
• Category:Aesthetics
• Game
• Fashion
• Coolness