It's true - the best men aren't always taken, say researchers

Here's a scientific piece of good news for the ladies: the best men are not always taken.

Indeed, that is the title of the latest research by Paola Bressan and Debora Stranieri, both of Italy's University of Padua, published in the current issue of Psychological Science. It's also subtitled: 'Female preference for single versus attached males depends on conception risk.'

They find that women in relationships tend subconsciously to prefer having an affair with a married man. But this changes when they become fertile during their menstrual cycles, in which case they prefer single men.

'Partnered women prefer attached men, because such men are more likely than single men to have pair-bonding qualities, and hence to be good replacement partners; this inclination should reverse when fertility rises, because attached men are less available for impromptu sex than single men,' the two academics wrote.

In the study, 208 women were asked to rate the attractiveness of men who were described as single or attached. Women who had partners were found to favour attached men at the low-fertility phases of their menstrual cycle, but prefer single men (provided they were masculine, that is, advertising good genetic quality) when the risk of pregnancy was high.

It is, apparently, rooted deep in our evolutionary past.