# Why do we feel compelled to tap our feet or dance to music?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-feel-compelled-to-tap-our-feet-or-dance-to-music/150796>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 25, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-feel-compelled-to-tap-our-feet-or-dance-to-music/150796 "2003-01-25T03:05:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![whiteboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@whiteboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiteboy)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-feel-compelled-to-tap-our-feet-or-dance-to-music/150796/1 "2003-01-25T03:05:50Z")

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I’ve always wondered about this. Is there a specific scientific reason humans are so affected by music?

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**Author:** ![Lodrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@Lodrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lodrain)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-feel-compelled-to-tap-our-feet-or-dance-to-music/150796/2 "2003-01-25T03:26:32Z")

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Psychological conditioning? We see images of people dancing and/or tapping feet to music, and thus, do it ourselves. Just a WAG.

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**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-feel-compelled-to-tap-our-feet-or-dance-to-music/150796/3 "2003-01-25T03:46:39Z")

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I see this as a part of the larger question; why do we enjoy music at all?

I personally have no idea.

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**Author:** ![bilgerat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce73a5/32.png) [@bilgerat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bilgerat)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-feel-compelled-to-tap-our-feet-or-dance-to-music/150796/4 "2003-01-25T03:56:50Z")

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Don’t know why we seem compelled to do it, but my 7th grade band teacher (way back when) would have fits over this as it always sounded like a company of Marines was parading through the classroom while we were paying. 🙂

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**Author:** ![j\_kat\_251](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/71c47a/32.png) [@j\_kat\_251](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_kat_251)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-feel-compelled-to-tap-our-feet-or-dance-to-music/150796/5 "2003-01-25T08:11:07Z")

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Anyone remember that scene from Gone With The Wind? To override those Southern ‘rules’ of decor, it must be pretty deeply ingrained.