Altruistic Behavior Attracts Women: Study

Extending a helping hand can actually make you look sexier in the eyes of the opposite sex, a latest research reveals.

The study published in BMC Evolutionary Biology states that women are more likely to fall for men who are ready to help others. According to the study, they found men sexually attractive for both one-night stands and long-term relationships.

For the research, the scientists studied 32 women and 35 men who were asked to rate the attractiveness of the opposite sex on their qualities. Women mostly rated men for their selfless qualities such as "he does the shopping for his elderly neighbor."

According to the study, both men and women rated each other for possible long-term partners on the nature of their altruistic behavior. "At first glance, it's difficult to see how natural selection could favor behaviors that involve investing significant time and resources to help others at a cost to oneself," Dr. Freya Harrison, a Research Fellow in the University of Nottingham's Life Sciences Center for Biomolecular Sciences, said in a press release.

"We now know that 'altruistic' helping can actually increase evolutionary fitness in various ways - people might preferentially help their relatives, with whom they share genes, or they might target their helping toward others who are likely to reciprocate in the future," she said.

"Having the energy and ability to help others might be a show of vigor, rather like a peacock's tail. It would be really interesting for future work to try to tease these two possibilities apart," Harrison added.