Those who engage in dancing tend to be more harmonious with others.
Dancing is a source of happiness for many individuals. It appears to have an impact on a person's personality too. As per researchers, individuals who dance have greater levels of openness and lower levels of neuroticism. Particularly, a specific dance form seems to stand out.
A study carried out by the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt found that people who dance are less neurotic than their counterparts. Additionally, they are more tolerant, more open, and more extroverted compared to non-dancers, according to the researchers. This finding holds true for both amateur and professional dancers.
The results of the study were recently published in the journal "Personality and Individual Differences." The researchers examined data from 5,435 people in Sweden and 574 people in Germany. The Big Five personality traits, comprising openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, were measured using an extensive questionnaire.
A similar outcome was also observed for the personalities of musicians. They were found to be more tolerant and open than non-musicians in a previous study. The current study also confirmed this observation for dancers, said researchers.
What sets musicians and dancers apart?
The researchers, however, identified an intriguing distinction between the two groups. Unlike female musicians and male musicians, female dancers and male dancers are not more neurotic, but rather less neurotic than people who don't dance.
In general, both female dancers and male dancers exhibited a strong degree of extraversion in their personalities, "which may be due to the fact that the body is used as an expression medium when dancing and singing," explained first author Julia F. Christensen. "This implies that they are in a more socially exposed circumstance than someone expressing themselves through an instrument."
Distinctions between Swing and Ballroom?
Additionally, the researchers discovered preliminary evidence that there might be personality variations between dancers of diverse dance styles. For instance, people who dance Swing seem to be even less neurotic than Standard or Latin dancers.
However, these presumptions must be confirmed using larger data sets. The study should also be continued for another reason: The researchers intend to further investigate the personalities of dancers across various cultures and dance styles.
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Dancing, as a form of art, not only brings joy but also impacts a person's personality. Researchers have found that individuals who engage in dancing, whether amateur or professional, tend to have lower levels of neuroticism and higher levels of openness compared to non-dancers. This is similar to the findings in a study on musicians' personalities.
Interestingly, female dancers and male dancers were found to be less neurotic than their non-dancing counterparts, contrasting the findings for musicians where gender did not play a significant role in neuroticism levels. These observations highlight the unique influence of movement arts like dancing and music on individuals' psychological well-being.
