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Study: People who dance are less neurotic

According to a study, people who dance are less neurotic than their peers. They are also more agreeable, open and extroverted than people who do not dance. According to the researchers, both of these factors apply to both amateur and professional dancers, as revealed by a study led by the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt.

The results of the study were recently published in the journal "Personality and Individual Differences". The MPI researchers analyzed data from 5,435 people from Sweden and 574 people from Germany. The five personality traits examined were openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism, which were determined using an extensive questionnaire.

Similar results for musicians
Similar results have already been obtained for the personality of musicians. According to an earlier study, they are more agreeable and open towards others than non-musicians. According to the MPI, the current study also confirmed this in principle for dancers.

However, the researchers also found an interesting difference between the two groups: In contrast to musicians, dancers are not more neurotic, but - on the contrary - less neurotic than people who do not dance.

High level of extraversion
In general, both dancers and singers exhibited a high degree of extraversion in their personality - "which may be due to the fact that dancing and singing involve using one's own body as a means of expression," reported first author Julia F. Christensen. "This means that they are in a more socially exposed situation than someone who expresses themselves through an instrument, for example."

The researchers also found initial indications that there could be personality differences between dancers of different dance styles. For example, people who dance swing seem to be even less neurotic than Latin and standard dancers.

According to the MPI, however, such assumptions still need to be confirmed with larger amounts of data. The study is also to be continued for another reason: The researchers would like to extend their investigations into the personality of dancers to other cultures and dance styles.