Hey babe, check out my dance moves

Picture the stereotypical scientist: male, shy, lacking social skills, single and, most likely, a disaster on the dancefloor. But here is an example of how science can be used to improve one's social life: research your way into impressing potential partners through dancing.

It takes no more than one night out clubbing to see that some men look hotter than others when they dance. But what exactly are the lousy dancers doing wrong? What are the key moves that work to increase your sex appeal? According to a carefully conducted scientific experiment at Northumbria University, where 3D avatars of male volunteers dancing were shown to straight women who evaluated their performance, this is bad:

video: Northumbria University

Plodding in a circle? No. Moving your arms and legs while keeping the rest of your body still? Forget it. Head-banging doesn't work either. Women don't seem to find men with repetitive dance moves attractive. Instead, they prefer movements showing variability and creativity which supposedly signal that the man is energetic, strong and healthy. According to the leader of the study, Nick Neave, the “brilliant dancers” are those that have different parts of the body “doing ever so slightly different things in time to the music”. Varied movements of the head, neck and torso appear to be key. So, men, all you have to do is mix up your moves and make sure your upper body is not still. The video below shows how it's done.

video: Northumbria University

Call me picky but I wasn't that turned on by that either...