People who cut up the dance floor tend to be more agreeable and more open than wallflowers, according to an analysis at German research institute Max-Planck-Gesellchaft which studied professional and amateur dancers in Germany and Sweden.
People who dance were found to be more extroverted and less neurotic than others, including even musicians who aren’t the dancing kind, according to the study, published in the science journal Personality And Individual Differences.
“Both dancers and singers show a high degree of extraversion in their personality – which may be due to the fact that their means of expression when dancing and singing is their body – and this is a very socially exposed situation, more than if you express through an instrument,” lead author Julia F. Christensen said.
While dancers and musicians share high openness, neuroticism differentiates them, the study concluded.
However the research found evidence of personality differences between dancers of different styles, with swing dancers seemingly even less neurotic than Latin and Standard dancers.
The researchers said these differences between dance styles need more research – something they hope to do by “extend(ing) their research into dancers’ personalities to many other cultures and dance styles.”
“Dance school entrepreneurs, a special group of people that are both entrepreneurs and dancers, were generally even more open and agreeable and less neurotic than dancers and non-dancers,” the team said. – dpa
