'Love children, and women will love you'

A study by a team of US researchers reveals that men who like children are found to be more attractive to women.

A study by a team of American researchers has revealed that men who like children are found to be more attractive to women.

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Women can pick up cues about how men feel about children from their faces and use the subtle signs to rate them as potential partners, James Roney of the University of California, Santa Barbara, said.

The team showed that an affinity for children and male hormone levels play a role in determining how attractive men are to women.

"Our data suggests that men's interest in children predicts their long-term mate attractiveness even after we account for how physically attractive the women rated the men," he said.

In the study of nearly 70 men and women, an interest in children was linked to long-term partnership potential while women were attracted to men with higher testosterone levels as short-term romantic mates.

"The study provides the first direct evidence that women's attractiveness judgments specifically track both men's affinity for children and men's hormone concentrations," said Dario Maestripieri of the University of Chicago, and a co-author of the study.

The researchers photographed the men and showed the photos to 29 female students who were asked to rate the men on whether they thought they liked children, their masculinity, physical attractiveness and potential as short and long-term partners.

The findings, published online, showed that women were able to choose the men who had expressed an interest in children during the photo test. They also described men who had high testosterone levels as being masculine.