Navel Gazing Helps Evaluate Potential Mates

Navel gazing is slang for "excessive introspection, self-absorption, or concentration on a single issue" - something that people involved in meditation, Tantra, or even yoga are sometimes accused of. "Navel gazing" may serve a useful purpose though. It can help evaluate a potential mate, according to Aki Sinkkonen of the University of Helsinki, Finland.

Navel-gazing may serve a useful purpose, after all. People may use belly button beauty to assess the fitness of a potential mate, according to Aki Sinkkonen of the University of Helsinki, Finland.

"I was younger than nowadays, and some of my friends were discussing how some women have a beautiful umbilicus or navel," Sinkkonen told Discovery News. "I was thinking, 'How is this possible? If this is scar tissue, how is it possible that it can be beautiful?"

Indeed, the navel is often cited as a textbook example of a useless body part. But Sinkkonen, who published his idea recently in the FASEB Journal, said there is plenty of evidence that there is more to it than that. Read more