A person’s ability to wiggle their ears, like rolling your tongue, can be a quirky, amusing trait, but it serves no functional purpose in humans. Whether your ears wiggle on command is partly determined by genetics and inherited from your biological parents. However, you may be able to develop this trick with time and effort.

With AncestryDNA^® + Traits, you can discover whether your ability to wiggle your ears comes from your genes or if you're in the lucky percentage of people who naturally figured out how to do it.

Can You Learn to Wiggle Your Ears?

While many animals swivel their ears to help focus their hearing on specific sounds, humans lack this ability. This is because humans have fewer auricular (extrinsic) muscles than many other species. Dogs, for example, have an average of 18 muscles around each ear. Humans have just three extrinsic muscles, and they've long been considered vestigial—biological elements that no longer have any use.

Yet 10-20% of people can voluntarily contract these three muscles to wiggle their ears. While humans no longer need to move their auricular muscles for survival, it can be a fun “secret” talent.

If you've ever wished you could learn how to wiggle your ears, you can. It may require patience, but many people can train the muscles responsible for wiggling ears, regardless of their genetic predisposition to this trait.

To learn this skill, focus on the muscles behind your ears and try to contract or flex them. It's important to avoid moving other parts of your face, such as your forehead, eyebrows, or jaw. If you're unsure where to start, look in a mirror and smile to see if your ears also move. Watching yourself may help you feel the muscles that control ear movements and pinpoint how to contract them. Practice consistently to develop the necessary control.

Ear Wiggling and Genetics

The AncestryDNA team set out to further identify the genetic connection to the ability to wiggle your ears. To reach an answer, the team asked over 790,000 people, “Can you wiggle your ears?” and compared their answers and genetic profiles. In all, this process revealed 250 DNA markers that relate to ear wiggling.

Using these findings, the scientists calculated a polygenic risk score—a tool to predict how likely you are to be able to wiggle your ears based on your genetics.

Looking at the results of their genetic study, the AncestryDNA team concluded that the variation in people’s ear-wiggling ability is at least partly due to genetics, but a larger portion is a result of practice and behavior.

What Else Do Scientists Say About Ear Wiggling?

Researchers released a study in 2025 that discovered the ear’s so-called vestigial muscles still move—albeit slightly—when a person tries to listen to sounds that come from different directions. For example, this hint of ear movement can occur when someone hears a surprise sound that draws their attention away from their previous auditory focus. Another study also found that small involuntary ear movements correlated to various directions of sounds participants were listening to.

Other scientists have explored whether there are potential benefits to learning this skill. For example, one Australian study revealed that learning or relearning a complex skill—like how to wiggle one’s ears—after some brain injuries may help improve their recovery. This improvement may occur because of the intense focus needed to learn and practice cognitively complex skills that may help to restore neuroplasticity—to rebuild neural pathways damaged by a traumatic brain injury (TBI) or stroke.

Fun Facts About Ear Wiggles

While auricular muscles have become somewhat vestigial, they're unlikely to disappear completely. The ear muscles still help support the ear, even if they don't assist with movement. With that in mind, it's unlikely people will ever entirely lose the ability to wiggle their ears.

The involuntary ear movements made when trying to focus may help researchers develop better, more accurate hearing aids. If hearing aids can detect the electrical activity in surrounding ear muscles, they may be able to amplify the sound a person wants to focus on instead of amplifying all sound in the area.

Ready to learn more about your lesser-known genetic traits like wiggling your ears, sneezing at bright lights, or ticklishnesss? Take an AncestryDNA + Traits test today to learn more about the genetics behind your appearance, personality, and behavior. If you've already taken a test, review your results now with an Ancestry membership.