Science Confirms Good Posture Makes People Think You’re Hot

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By Andrew Follett

Sit up straight! Having good posture makes you more attractive to the opposite sex, according to new research from Northwestern University and the University of California.

In the study, researchers conducted two experiments to measure how posture changes how attractive people appear on traditional dates and when being vetted on dating apps.

Researchers studied the in-person interactions between 12 men and 12 women at a speed-dating event on Northwestern University’s campus. Researchers then created dating app profiles for three white men and three white women and surveyed 853 interactions made with these profiles.

The results? Both men and women were seen as more attractive when they had good posture.

Individuals with better posture performed better on in-person and on dating apps as well as on other measures of initial dating success. Every group studied in the research was attracted to better posture, suggesting it conveys both social dominance and openness.

“Given these very short scenarios, humans are more likely to rely on their instincts to make judgments; based on our research, it appears that humans are likely perceiving social dominance and openness through body postures and using that information to say ‘yes,’” Dr. Tanya Vacharkulksemsuk, a professor at University of California at Berkeley who was involved in the research, told PsyPost.

“The architecture of these new dating paradigms (e.g., speed-dating, online swiping) offers a way to examine this process of social interaction, especially in short time periods (for speed-dating it’s minutes, for online it’s seconds),” Vacharkulksemsuk said. “We already know a bit about body language in social interactions from past research, but how body language is perceived and translates to romantic attraction success is lesser known. This study is a first in beginning to examine these questions.”

The research focused mostly on posture in the upper body, as this is the region most dating applications highlight.