According to a study, people that have a dominant and open posture are more likely to get a date. A group of scientists led by Dr. Tanya Vacharkulksemsuk carried out 2 experiments to prove that body language is playing a major role in the dating scene.
The study was divided into 2 controlled experiments. In the first one, the researchers studied 144 speed-dates paying special attention to the postures and nonverbal communication from each individual. After analyzing the results, the team concluded that people with expansive postures doubled their odds of getting a “yes” from every speed date compared to the people that adopted contracted poses.
In the second experiment, a group of people was asked to look at profile pictures. The images were from a dating app that people use to seek possible sexual partners. The group flipped through 3000 photographs and the results were consistent with the first field study. Both men and women feel more attracted to people that appeared to be dominant and opened.
But what is an expansive posture?
And expansive posture means occupying more space with your body; having a straight back, arms next to your body with shoulders widened and always looking up front. In contrast, crossing your arms over your chest, looking down and shrugging the shoulders is likely to kill your chances of getting a second date. The same could be applied to Facebook profile pictures, WhatsApp, ETC.
We are more basic than we thought
A similar behavior is very common in the animal reign. Peacocks display their feathers when looking for mates, monkeys raise their arms with the same purpose and lions with big manes are more successful with lionesses. In fact, this was the motivation for the experiment, the research team wanted to know if the scenario repeated itself in human societies.
The first experiment, the speed-dates, also showed that confident people who use their hands while talking seemed to be more appealing than people who kept their arms for themselves.
The ultimate conclusion is that a nonverbal and open behavior will double your chances of going out with your crush for a second time and if you apply the same principle to your profile picture, you might have actual chances of getting the first date.
The study was published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Source: PNAS