Readers of the UK’s second-best selling daily newspaper may already know this, but scientists have answered “the question that has troubled many a young woman as she dresses for a night out: How much should she dare to bare?”

The Daily Mail has noticed a paper in the journal Behaviour that the rest of the British journalism community missed. In this paper Colin Hendrie, of the University of Leeds, and his colleagues report their undercover observations of a Leeds nightclub.

Hendrie, who has previously suggested that kissing was developed ‘to spread germs’, told the Mail the answer to the question is 40%: “Any more than 40 per cent and the signal changes from ‘allure’ to one indicating general availability and future infidelity.”

While many British readers may be puzzled by apparent generalization from one Leeds nightclub to the human population as a whole, the abstract for Hendrie’s paper is so amazing we provide extracts here for your reading pleasure:

Young, sexually mature humans Homo sapiens sapiens of both sexes commonly congregate into particular but arbitrary physical locations and dance. These may be areas of traditional use, such as nightclubs, discotheques or dance-halls or areas that are temporarily commissioned for the same purpose such as at house parties or rock festivals etc.

…

Data revealed that more than 80% of people entering the nightclub did so without a partner and so were potentially sexually available. There was also an approx. 50% increase in the number of couples leaving the nightclub as compared to those entering it seen on each occasion this was measured, indicating that these congregations are for sexual purposes.

…

Various female display tactics were measured and these showed that whilst only 20% of females wore tight fitting clothing that revealed more than 40% of their flesh/50% of their breast area and danced in a sexually suggestive manner, these attracted close to half (49%) of all male approaches seen. These data reveal the effectiveness of clothing and dance displays in attracting male attention and strongly indicate that nightclubs are human display grounds, organised around females competing for the attention of males. Females with the most successful displays gain the advantage of being able to choose from amongst a range of males showing interest in them.

UK readers should feel free to leave the usual “why is my tax money funding this research” in the comments section…

Image: a Leeds club / photo by Al Green via Flickr under creative commons.