Consider the video below, with particular focus on any anteroposterior axial gyrations of Mick Jagger’s pelvis.
Many believe, presumably not least Mick himself, that hip-wiggling manoeuvres are attractive. But how much, exactly? For the first time, results of a study which empirically investigates (and bears Mick’s name) has been published by a team from the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Research, Jyväskylä, Finland. Their paper : MOVES LIKE JAGGER: MULTIDIMENSIONAL ATTRACTIVENESS RATINGS OF OPPOSITE-SEX DANCERS (Suomen Musiikintutkijoiden 16. Symposium – The 16th Annual Symposium for Music Scholars in Finland Jyväskylä 21.-23.3.2012) details a set of experiments which not only attempted to quantify the attractiveness of hip-wiggling, [Defined as : The mean absolute angular velocity of the hips around the anteroposterior axis] but also Downforce, Shoulder vs. hip angle, Hip-knee phase, Shoulder-hip ratio, Hip-body ratio, and Body symmetry.
“Sixty-two heterosexual adult participants watched 48 short audio-visual point-light animations of eight male and eight female adults dancing individually to Techno, Pop, and Latin music. Participants rated perceived Femininity/Masculinity (as appropriate), Sensuality, Sexiness, Mood, and Interestingness of each dancer.”
The results :
“We found that, for men watching women, Hip-knee phase angle was positively related to Interestingness and Mood, and that Hip-body ratio was positively related to Sensuality. For women watching men, Downforce was positively related to Sensuality. Other prominent but nonsignificant correlations supported the view that these three features are relevant to ratings of female and male dancers’ attractiveness in general.”
Note [1] Hip-wiggle attained the highest score for ‘masculinity’ when women were watching male dancers.
Note [2] The paper is strikingly similar, in fact identical in many ways, to another publication by the same team : ‘Hips Don’t Lie: Multi-Dimensional Ratings of Opposite-Sex Dancers’ Perceived Attractiveness’ (proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition and the 8th Triennial Conference of the European Society for Cognitive Sciences of Music, July 23-28, 2012, Thessaloniki Greece)
Also see : Mick Jagger’s 1969 ‘frock’ – a Fustanella or not?
BONUS: