According to a new research from Dr Michael Dunn of the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff, women find a man more attractive if he owns an expensive car.
In their study, Dunn and colleagues recruited 120 men and women, aged 18 to 40, and showed them two separate pictures of a model, sitting in two different cars- one a £70,000 silver Bentley continental and the other a battered red Ford Fiesta.
Dunn’s team found that women viewed the same man as ''more attractive'' in the prestige car, while men shown similar pictures of a woman thought she was of equal attractiveness no matter which car she was sitting in.
The study authors say their findings confirm the long held belief that women look to a man’s wealth and status, whereas men are primarily influenced with a woman’s looks.
Dunn said: "There's a variety of evidence that does suggest that females are more influenced by wealth and status. It is very ingrained and the evidence is not just anecdotal. Females focus on questions of wealth and status because if the male possesses those, he'd be in a better condition to rear healthy offspring."
This basic human trait, Dunn believes, would still not change in the future, even as women become increasingly independent and wealthy in their own rights.
He added: “It appears that the stereotype of women being positively influenced by a man’s status is true and, evolutionarily speaking, this makes sense. However, even with the growing number of women in high-paid careers and the fact that they can be highly successful has no effect on how attractive they are to men.
“What you find is that these new, wealthy women still show a preferment for high-status males, which suggests that these preferences are evolutionary, rather than social factors.”
But, the findings, published in the British Journal of Psychology, haven’t surprised Donna Dawson, a psychologist specializing in personality, behavior and relationships, at all.
Dawson said: "It's hard to fight against our genetic inheritance. I think women have always looked to men for some sort of financial security."
Meanwhile, Dunn said they are now planning to carry out further studies, to examine whether buying high-status items like expensive cars can help men deal with their mid-life crisis.
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