Women can sniff smart men by reading their self discription online

To woo a woman just by posting your best-looking snap alongside an online profile may not be the best idea after all -- a study has found that women can identify a physically attractive man just by reading his profile.

In the study, researchers found good-looking men were able to convey their confidence and attractiveness in their written self-description, and that women volunteers were able to recognise their beauty without being shown their photos.Men whose photos were rated as attractive had written profiles that were also deemed to be attractive, despite words and images being rated by different judges, the study conducted by Villanova University in Philadelphia, US, found.

As part of the study, 100 men's profiles were divided into four sets of 25 with each of the 50 female rating one subset of 25 photos and a different subset of 25 profile texts.

As many as 50 female university students were asked by academics to examine profiles and pictures of 100 men aged 22-25 who had posted on a popular dating website.

Each of these students was given 25 photographs and advised to rate how attractive they found each man if they were to consider him for a date, short-term sexual encounter or long-term relationship. They were also asked to observe how confident and masculine he seemed from the picture.

The women were then given written profiles of 25 different men and again asked how attractive each seemed for a date, for sex and for a long-term committed relationship. In addition to this, they were also asked to rate each candidate on how kind, confident, intelligent, funny or humorous he seemed from his profile.