if you're single and struggling to find a girlfriend, you might want to consider a change of profession because a study has found that women are more attracted to men who display heroic traits such as war heroes, successful sportsmen and firemen however, the study found the opposite wasn't true, and men did not find heroism to be a sexually attractive trait in women phwoar: a study by the university of southampton says women prefer war heroes they are also attracted to other heroic professions like being a fireman however, men prefer women to not be in a heroic profession 'only males seem to benefit from displaying heroism,' said dr leunissen from the university  the study was carried out by the university of southampton and published in the journal evolution and human behaviour in the research 92 women studying in the uk were presented with hypothetical profiles of the opposite sex, representing varying levels of heroism in different contexts such as warfare, sport and business they were then asked a series of questions designed to determine how attracted they were to the different profiles women were more likely to find a soldier attractive, and were more inclined to date him, if he had been awarded a medal for bravery in combat ladies should behave like men if they want to work in male dominated industries, according to a controversial study research by professor ann marie ryan, a psychologist at michigan state university, suggests recruiters prefer more masculine traits to those commonly associated with women she asked women to apply for leadership roles in male dominated industries such as engineering in front of a panel of volunteers asked to evaluate the candidates' suitability some of the women were asked to emphasise 'masculine like' traits such as assertiveness, independence and raw ambition others were asked to display more 'feminine traits'   warmth, supportiveness and a nurturing nature the panel, irrespective of the gender of those sitting on it, decided that leadership required more dominant and assertive traits to be shown during the interview process but whether or not a non decorated soldier had seen combat in a warzone or remained in the uk did not have a statistically significant effect on his attractiveness displays of heroism in other fields, such as in sports or in business, also had no effect on how likely women were to find them attractive in a subsequent experiment by the researchers, 159 women and 181 men studying in holland took part in a similar exercise to determine their level of sexual attraction to the opposite sex this time, the soldier profiles displayed various levels of bravery, either in combat or by helping in a natural disaster zone again, heroism in combat increased women's levels of sexual attraction towards male soldiers, but heroism in a disaster zone had no impact female heroes, both in combat and in disaster zones, were deemed less attractive by men than their non hero counterparts 'this provides evidence for the hypothesis that gender differences in intergroup conflict can have an evolutionary origin, as only males seem to benefit from displaying heroism,' said dr joost leunissen, a psychologist at the university of southampton 'in light of the physical dangers and reproductive risks involved, participating in intergroup aggression might not generally be a viable reproductive strategy for women 'heroism also seems to be a context specific signal, as it only had an effect on attractiveness in a setting of intergroup conflict 'indeed, soldiers who displayed heroism were only considered to be more attractive when this was displayed in a warfare context and not in another situation which is frequently associated with the army   helping during and after natural disasters' hot stuff: being a fireman (stock image shown) was one profession rated as being attractive by women in the study however, displays of heroism in other fields, such as in sports or in business, also had no effect on how likely women were to find them attractive  the experiments follow on from a historical analysis undertaken by the research team, which looked at numbers of children fathered by us medal of honor recipients in the second world war compared to the numbers of children fathered by regular veterans the analysis shows medal of honor recipients had an average of 318 children, while regular veterans averaged 272 children, suggesting decorated war heroes sired more offspring than other veterans 'raids, battles, and ambushes in ancestral environments, and wars in modern environments, may provide an arena for men to signal their physical and psychological strengths,' said dr leunissen 'of course, women may not always witness these heroic acts in person, but such information is likely to be widely communicated within a tribal community, particularly when the actions of male warriors are outstandingly brave' the study team was made up of researchers from the university of southampton, uk; university of giessen, germany; technical university of munich, germany; and vu university amsterdam, the netherlands
university of southampton leunissen
study by university of southampton says women prefer war heroes  they are also attracted to other heroic professions like being a fireman  however, men prefer women to not be in a heroic profession  'only males seem to benefit from displaying heroism,' said dr leunissen from the university  the team also found medal of honor recipients had more children 