Physical attractiveness does influence a woman's choice of a romantic partner, according to a new study which shows even if a man has a great personality, looks matter more than ladies admit.

Researchers asked women between the ages of 15 to 29 to choose potential dates from a series of photographs and descriptions, while the women's mothers were asked to select possible boyfriends for their daughters using the same information.

Both daughters and mothers rated the attractive and moderately attractive men as more desirable dating partners than unattractive men, researchers said.

The study suggests that women value physical attractiveness in a potential mate far more than they say they do, said Madeleine Fugere, a professor of social psychology at Eastern Connecticut State University in the US.

In the study, researchers looked at 80 daughters and 61 mothers. Each woman was shown colour photographs of three men, 'Live Science' reported.

Each photograph came with one of three trait profiles, which included personality characteristics and attributes.

After looking at the three photographs and personality profiles, the women were asked to rate how attractive they found each man, how favorable they thought his personal description was and how desirable he was as a date (or, for the moms, how desirable he was as a date for their daughters).

The results showed that as long as a man was considered attractive or moderately attractive, both mothers and daughters would pick the guy who had the most desirable personality traits.

However, when an unattractive man was paired with the most desirable personality profile, neither daughters nor mothers rated him as favorably as a potential romantic partner.