Men with long facial features and large eyes, and women with slim faces and small eyes are percieved as more promiscuous, a new study has revealed.
However, this perception only rings true for men, and not for women, according to the researchers.
In the study, experts in Australia asked heterosexual men and women about their levels of 'sociosexuality' – the willingness to engage in sexual activity outside of a committed relationship, also known as casual sex.
The participants also had their photos taken and shown to other participants of the opposite sex, so they could judge, based on looks alone, if they had an interest in sociosexuality.
Men who were open to casual sex typically had longer faces, higher foreheads, longer noses and larger eyes, the team found.
What's more, women accurately identified these male facial features as indicators of the guys' interest in casual sex.
However, men wrongly perceived smaller, more gracile female faces featuring smaller eyes and smaller lips to be an indicator of women's openness to casual sex.
So while these may be the physical traits men look for when up for a one-night-stand, either consciously or subconsciously, they might not indicate that the woman is up for it.
In essence, the results suggest women are good at correctly identifying physical characteristics in men that indicate interest in a one-night-stand, but not the other way around.
The study authors, from Macquarie University in Australia, had wanted to learn more about whether sociosexuality is written in our faces.
'When we are looking for a new partner, we might be looking for different things,' said study author Professor Ian Stephen.
'Sometimes we might be looking to form a lasting relationship, but at other times we might just be looking for a fling.
'We decided to see whether people's intentions might be revealed by their faces.'
Composite images of the average faces of the men who were least (left) and most (right) open to casual, short-term connections, which women were able to determine
More inscrutable: Composite images of the average faces of the women who were least (left) and most (right) open to casual, short-term connections, although men found it difficult to determine the difference overall
For the study, just over 100 Caucasian people, all with an average age of 20 years, were photographed and asked to complete the
