The study on social robots has been actively conducted in the robot research community. In the area of robot design, however, there are few studies regarding robot motions that are one of the methods for interaction between humans and robots. This is a preliminary study to find preferred human motions that can be applied to social robots. We conducted a two-phased empirical study about preferred human motions. In the first phase, four representative human motions, such as ‘greeting’, ‘I don’t know’, ‘positive answer’, and ‘giving’, were captured through 28 body makers and video recording. 10 young and 6 elderly Singaporeans participated in the motion capture process. In the second phase, the communication efficiency, emotion, and satisfaction of the human motions recorded in the first phase were measured by a questionnaire and 31 young Koreans, 35 young Singaporeans participated to investigate cultural differences. We drew the conclusion that motions used in the same culture are efficient in communication and also give friendliness and satisfaction. In addition, regardless of user"s culture, young people’s motions and female motions were preferred in terms of communication efficiency, emotional aspect, satisfaction.