Attraction is a mysterious phenomenon that science keeps trying to decode. We have examined the neurochemicals that may be associated with personal chemistry, we have conducted experiments to see if we can make people fall in love, and major online dating sites mine their data to look for patterns among potential matches. A recent article published in PNAS adds a new piece of information to the scientific puzzle: humans tend to be more attracted to other people who take up more space.

These results echo earlier findings that suggest “power poses” can help individuals to feel more confident—perhaps a similar phenomenon makes people who engage in dominant non-verbal displays more attractive to potential mates.

For this paper, researchers conducted two field studies in which they tracked nonverbal behaviors that might be associated with attraction and dominance. The first study took place in a speed-dating setting and was an observational study in which the researchers simply watched daters’ behavior. The second study was experimental; it tracked participants’ romantic attraction to potential matches presented by a freely available GPS-based dating app in the San Francisco area (presumably something similar to dating apps like Tinder or OKCupid).