Minutes

Abdul Kader, Mohamed Ismail; Morrison, Edward; Gheorghiu, Ana. (2026). I like to move it move it – static and dynamic cues in social perception. The Journal of Social Psychology, 166(5), 656–679. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2025.2580295

Can the way someone moves change how we judge them? 

UK researchers examined whether static cues, such as body shape, and dynamic cues like walking and dancing, influence how people judge attractiveness, competence, and warmth. Different levels of visual stimuli were created using volunteers, including static pictures, dynamic videos, and motion-capture videos, which isolated movement. Next, 54 raters from Europe and North America viewed the different types of stimuli and rated each person from 1 to 7 on attractiveness, competence, and warmth.  

Results? Both appearance and movement appeared to shape social judgments. Movement is especially important in judging competence, with dynamic cues predicting attractiveness ratings much more strongly than static cues during both walking and dancing. For attractiveness, static and dynamic cues both contribute to a significant degree. Measures of warmth showed a more mixed pattern, with static cues playing a stronger role during walking while both static and dynamic cues contributed during dancing. 

The lesson? The attraction we feel towards another depends on more than what someone looks like. How a person moves, showing confidence, caring, or good humor, provides additional social information affecting attraction. 

Written by Dan Peacock M.S.