Dancing
makes you feel good and help bond with others
From: University
of Oxford
Dancing in time with others raises your pain threshold, Oxford
University researchers have found.
A team from the University's Experimental Psychology and
Anthropology Departments wanted to see whether our feelings of social closeness
when dancing with others might be linked to endorphins – the body’s 'feel good'
chemicals.
Endorphins are neurotransmitters that form part of the brain’s
pain control system, but they are also implicated in social bonding.
Moving energetically or moving in synchrony can
both make you feel closer to others when you are dancing.
Dr Bronwyn Tarr, Department of Experimental Psychology:'As it's hard to measure endorphin levels directly, we used pain
thresholds as an indirect measure. More endorphins mean we tolerate pain
better, so measuring relative increases in people’s pain thresholds can
indicate whether endorphins are being released.'
The team had 264 young people take part in the study in Brazil. In
groups, they did either high or low exertion dancing that was either
synchronised or unsynchronised. Before and after the activity, the team
measured the teenagers’ feelings of closeness to each other and their pain
thresholds.
The findings confirmed that synchronised activity encouraged
bonding more than unsynchronised activity. It also led to higher pain
thresholds. More energetic activity had a similar effect – it raised pain
thresholds and made groups feel closer.
'Both synchronisation and exertion had independent effects on
these measures, so moving energetically or moving in synchrony
can both make you feel closer to others when you are dancing' explained Tarr,
'But combining high energy and synchrony had the greatest effects – which might
explain why people love to Flashmob!'
