First Date? Sit Up Straight, Open Arms

Good posture doesn’t only help you get ahead in the workplace; it helps in the dating game too. We know that because researchers at the University of California at Berkeley videotaped 144 “speed dates” of men and women who spent four minutes talking to each other, then rated participants’ posture for expansiveness, meaning widespread limbs and a stretched torso, and closed posture, meaning limbs held close to the body. They then checked the speed-dating results to find which candidates had been chosen by their dates to be seen again. Ready? The envelope please. HealthDay reports that the research showed that for every single unit increase of expansiveness on the scale, that person was 76 percent more likely to get a ‘yes’ response from their speed-dating partner. Wait, there’s more. The researchers also analyzed thousands of reactions to photos of the opposite sex on a mobile dating app, some showing open and welcoming postures, and others showing closed postures. The researchers found that when men were choosing women, more than half the “hits” went to women with more open postures. Although men got fewer hits overall — because women are more selective than men, the researchers say — nearly nine out of 10 hits were in response to an expansive photo.