Men in 'healthy' countries have eyes for beauty!

London, May 1 (IANS) All the pretty women out there, if wooing a man is what is in your mind, move on to a country where conditions are not that harsh as feminine charm sweeps men living in countries with 'healthy' conditions.

A study has found that men living in unhealthy conditions are less attracted to pretty faces than their counterparts living in healthy conditions.

For example, a man living in Nepal or Nigeria finds a woman with large eyes, full lips and a soft jaw not as appealing as a man in Japan or Australia may find her.

"In harsh conditions, men may have a better chance of fathering children who survive if they mate with a woman who can hold on to resources," said Urszula Marcinkowska, a doctoral candidate at University of Turku in Finland.

"It might pay off for men in hard conditions to develop a preference for women who are not very highly feminine, because feminine women are perceived to be less socially dominant," Marcinkowska was quoted as saying.

For the study, researchers recruited 1,972 heterosexual men online from 28 countries and presented them with photos of women altered to look more or less feminine.

The study appeared in the journal Biology Letters.