Women find men 2 points more attractive out of 10 if their salary increases by this amount

Women really are more attracted to wealthy men, but the same is not true when the sexes are reversed, according to a perhaps not-too-shocking survey.

Studies have previously indicated that economic status does indeed play a part in male attractiveness, but none are believed to have compared impact of equivalent resources for female attractiveness.

Previous hypotheses also suggest evolution means males consider youth and high fertility a more important factor when seeking a mate.

Research by the University of Aberdeen has now said that while wealth does matters to some sexes in part, it has a much larger impact for women.

During the study, published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour, more than 300 men and women were shown pictures of the opposite sex and asked to rate and rank them based on their physical appearance.

They were then asked to rank them again, but this time when their salaries were randomly attributed to them.

The study states: "Annual salary is a direct way to evaluate economic status. Here, we combined images of male and female body shape with information on annual salary to elucidate the influence of economic status on the attractiveness ratings by opposite sex raters in American, Chinese and European populations.

"We found that ratings of attractiveness were around four times more sensitive to salary for females rating males, compared to males rating females. These results indicate that higher economic status can offset lower physical attractiveness in men much more easily than in women.

"Neither raters' BMI nor age influenced this effect for females rating male attractiveness. This difference explains many features of human mating behaviour and may pose a barrier for male engagement in low-consumption lifestyles."

Discussing the results, John Speakman, from the University of Aberdeen and Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Times: "A man can move himself two points higher on the attractiveness scale we used if his salary increases by a factor of ten. For a female to achieve the same two-point effect, her salary would need to increase by 10,000 times."

He added: "This potentially explains a previous study that showed men give more money to charity when women are watching them than when other males are watching."