Women prefer men with dating experience

Women find men with a history of exes more desirable than those who have no relationship experience, a new study has found.

Australian researchers found that women are more likely to rate a man desirable if he has had one or two partners than if he has had no relationship experience.

However, the study also found that those who had been with five partners in a four-year period were less desirable than those who had been with fewer.

Lead author Ryan Anderson, a PhD candidate at James Cook University, said 'mate copying' is a well-established practice in the rest of the animal kingdom, but there has been little research on what role it plays in human mate choice.

"Our results suggest that women do not always make mate choices independent of one another [and] there appears to be a significant desirability advantage for men who have been previously selected as a romantic partner," researchers said.

The study asked 123 university students to rate the desirability of a series of men based on photographs that included silhouettes of the number of women these men had dated over the past four years, 'abc.net.au' reported.

"We found that in terms of desirability... one or two was really desirable but when you go to five, the guy becomes really undesirable," Anderson said.

"Maybe that's an indication that he's promiscuous or unable or unwilling to commit, maybe he's a bit flaky - for whatever reason, he just can't hold down relationship so that was seen as a huge turn-off," he said.

The study was published in the journal Human Nature.