how to be a successful Valentine

The findings of one of the largest experiments in the science of attractiveness shown here challenge current thinking about the differences between men and women.

	The top-rated woman and man in our attractiveness survey

Around four thousand people took part in the web experiment, launched two weeks ago on this page, to provide new insights in time for Valentine's Day tomorrow.

Some revelations are obvious - in the case of men, being rich, powerful, smart and funny helps, and the more attractive the woman you are pursuing, the more these factors matter to her. Some are less obvious: women rate being good in bed as more desirable in a possible partner than men do.

The woman's face deemed the most beautiful - by just over half of the men rating the five photographs - was that of the youngest, B, aged 19. Women, however, plumped for the second oldest man, A, aged 29, as the most attractive.

This tallies with what one would expect from evolutionary theory: what we mean by beauty is a person who sends out signals that they are fertile, have "good" genes to pass on to our children and in so doing assist the dissemination of our own DNA - in other words all attraction is determined by the "selfish gene".

Because women have a shorter reproductive life span, males are predicted to be lured primarily by visual cues that signal high fertility, such as youth, and biological fitness indicated by physical flawlessness.

As predicted by evolutionary theory, the women that rated themselves as most attractive were teenagers, while nine per cent fewer women between 26 and 35 years rated themselves as most attractive.

Women in turn seem to seek signs of "resource acquisition" in men to maximise the prospects for their children. They prefer older men who tend to be more advanced in their careers, or of "higher status in the tribe", and are therefore likely to be a better bet in terms of providing resources.

Indeed, one of the largest sex differences was in rating the importance of financial resources - about 50 per cent more important to women than men. A slightly smaller but none the less significant gap emerged in the female rating of career ambitions in men as being important.

Evolutionary strategy also predicts that whom we go for is influenced by our assessment of our own value in the "market place". Women are more likely than men to shun the most attractive partner even if they believe they could secure him, because of fears that while he may be a great date, in the longer run he may be less likely to remain faithful and helpful.

Men are more predictable, going for the most physically gorgeous woman regardless of their ability to keep hold of such a desirable mate.

However, the experiment revealed a fascinating twist: women tended to rate themselves as more attractive to the opposite sex. While 55 per cent of men rated the 19-year-old girl as most attractive, only 26 per cent believed they stood a chance of getting her to go out on a date. In contrast, almost all of the 38 per cent of women who voted the 29-year-old man the most desirable were confident he would date them.

The fact there was much less consensus among women as to which man was physically attractive is also predicted by evolutionary theory, which says that women are attracted to features that have less to do with physical appearance and more to do with character and skill.

From previous research, we know women are much more likely to endorse statements such as ''I wasn't so attracted to him on our first meetings but became more drawn to him over time''. Men are much more likely to fall ''in love at first sight''. Or is it really ''lust at first sight''?

The online experiment retained hidden elements to take into account people's assessment of their allure. For example, half of those who took part were randomly shown pictures of attractive members of the same sex before being asked to rate their own attractiveness.

Men's rating of their magnetism dropped by around four percentage points after being shown handsome men. Given this was the result of exposure for an average of fewer than 20 seconds, it is sobering to speculate what the chronic exposure to physically attractive men in adverts, soaps and movies is having on male self-esteem. Yet, since women are less bothered about physical appearance than men, males could be worrying unnecessarily.

Intriguingly, the equivalent figure for women was only a one per cent drop in their assessment of their desirability. At first glance, this is contrary to what might be expected, given many have argued that the mass media's preoccupation with beautiful models and actresses might render normal women insecure.

But perhaps as the experiment used attractive members of the public and not flawless supermodels, there was less impact. Also, perhaps, women are so used to seeing beautiful role models in contrast to men that they have become more immune to their effect.

Reassuringly, given the impossible standards of beauty presented by Hollywood and the fashion industry, both sexes put sense of humour and intelligence as the most attractive features in a potential mate. But women then go for the ability to provide emotional support as the next most important feature, while men go for looks.

While it could be predicted that women would value being good with children as more important than men do in determining gorgeousness, it may come as a shock to discover that the women we surveyed rate being good in bed as more important than men do.

The 1.5 per cent of women who rated themselves as most attractive (10 out of 10) were also much more sexually active - having had an average of 14 sexual relationships compared with the overall average of eight.

Intelligence and a good sense of humour were again top of the list for what women find most desirable in a man, but these particularly desirable women were more interested in rich, powerful men, with a bigger emphasis (12 to 16 per cent more than the average woman) on status, financial resources and career ambition. Sought-after women are clearly seeking a ''man with a plan''. It would seem that a sure fire way for a man to render himself irresistible to such women is to be profiled in the City section of The Daily Telegraph rather than the romantic classifieds.

Women wanting to improve their chances on Valentine's Day with the kind of man they most fancy, will be interested in what the survey reveals about high-flying men. Just over one in 10 of them claimed to earn more than £100,000 annually and while their profile fitted closely with that of the average male, two key differences emerged. An interest in politics and current affairs was rated at roughly 10 per cent more important.

So if a woman wants to increase her chance of attracting high rollers, she should skip the fashion pages and study the news pages. One theory about why such men are so interested in politics and current affairs is that they are probably using a Machiavellian strategy to climb the greasy pole at work and are interested in fellow Machiavellians.

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