Sydney, June 24 (IANS/EFE): Women prefer men who have had a little experience in sentimental relationships, but not too much, according to a study published in Australia Tuesday.
Men with one or two past relationships rather than none are more attractive, although women lose interest if they have been romantically involved more than five times over a period of four years, local channel ABC reported.
"Our research suggests that females do not always take decisions about their partners regardless of others and it seems that a man is more attractive if he has been selected as a romantic partner previously," according to the authors of the study published in Human Nature magazine.
Ryan Anderson, head of the study and doctoral candidate at James Cook University in Australia, said that while this behaviour is deep rooted in the animal kingdom, it has not been deeply investigated in human beings.
Men generally seek their partners according to their physical attributes such as symmetry, beauty and the hips, while the definition of females's desires is less evident.
"A man looking for a mate can get a lot of information he needs while observing his potential partner, but females are not visually oriented," Anderson said in statements to ABC.
The researcher said that women are not as shallow as men because they seek to find if their potential mates will be good parents and couples, or if they will be committed to a common life plan, among other aspects that cannot be evaluated visually.
So, they look for a partner who has already been tested by other women and this serves as an indicator of him having met with those requirements, he said.
For study purposes, the researchers show different photographs of men with silhouettes of a number of women with whom they have had romantic relationships in the last four years.
Thus, it was determined that those who have been in one or two relationships were more attractive, but when it reached five they were undesirable.
"Perhaps this shows that he is promiscuous or is a person who doesn't love or is incapable of committing, or simply inspires distrust. Whatever may the reason be, this means the man cannot maintain a relationship and this is discouraging", he said.
The study also revealed that younger women tend to get attracted to men with previous relationships than their older counterparts, a tendency that was attributed to the likelihood that elder females have greater experience and are more confident in making their own decisions.