Images of the men ranged from those who were previously measured to be highly attractive, attractive and unattractive. Eighteen different occupations were also randomly assigned, from architect and company director to waiter, postman and gardener.

Surprisingly, researchers found that highly attractive men of medium status scored better than highly attractive men of high status.

The team, whose work is published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, speculates that women perceive highly attractive men of increasing status to be less faithful and "too good to be true".