Show some flesh (but not too much) to get a guy

09:51 18 November 2009

For many women preparing for a night out on the tiles, it's the immoral question – "What should I wear?" And for the females looking to catch a guy's glances from across the room, the notion of how much flesh to put on show is evermore important.

Too much flesh and a man may think you're "easy", too little and their attention may wander elsewhere. A set of researchers believe they have found the answer. The magical number is apparently 40%.

Psychologist Colin Henrie from the University of Leeds sent four female researchers to one of the city's biggest nightclubs. During the night they discreetly observed women from a balcony above the dance floor and, using tape recorders hidden in their handbags, recorded what a women was wearing and how many times she was approached by men.

For the purposes of the study, each arm accounted for 10% of the body, each leg for 15% and 50% for the torso for 50%. A woman's head, hands and feet were not included in the measurements.

After 70 hours of recordings, they found that women who exposed around 40% cent of their skin attracted twice as many men as those who wore less revealing outfits.

From their observations, the team also concluded that women who were more scantily clad were, perhaps surprisingly, less likely to receive attention. Experts believe showing too much could be counterproductive, as men are likely to be put off as they believe women in revealing outfits may be suggest they will be unfaithful in future.

Dr Hendrie said: "Any more than 40% and the signal changes from ‘allure’ to one indicating general availability and future infidelity.

"Show some leg, show some arm, but not any more than that."

The study, published in the journal Behaviour, found that the women who proved most popular combined the 40% flesh rule with tight fit clothing and provocative dancing. For the 15% of the women who combined all three criteria, each was approached by 40 men during the night.

But rather than getting out a calculator when your reach into the wardrobe for oyur next night out, use your common sense and stick to the advice our mothers gave us "Show some cleavage or some leg, but never both". Sound advice when it comes to attracting a mate in the dating world, and here is the proof.