People who have the qualities of self-sacrifice or are altruistic are often seen as sexually attractive by the opposite sex, suggests a latest and unique study. This latest study undertaken by a group of researchers led by Tim Phillips at the British University of Nottingham is published in the latest issue of the 'British Journal of Psychology'.

The study basically says that individuals particularly women, who display selflessness are admired by most of the men and they find them more attractive.

The study undertook 1000 participants to reach this conclusion, and all of them were asked about the various qualities they look in their mates. These series of qualities even had examples of altruistic behavior such as 'donates blood regularly' and 'volunteered to help out in a local hospital.'  

Out of this, nearly 170 couples were asked to rate as how much they liked altruistic traits in their mate, following which they were even asked to rate their own altruistic traits.

It was found that men and women prefer to have a mate who has high levels of selflessness and ability to sacrifice for others. Furthermore, it was also seen that those who themselves have abundant altruistic traits; tend to choose a partner with same qualities.

According to Philips, “Sexual selection could well come to be seen as exerting a major influence on what made humans human.”

 “Sexual preferences have enormous potential to shape the evolution of animal behavior. Humans are clearly not an exception: sex may have a crucial role in explaining what is our most biologically interesting and unusual habits,” said Tom Reader at the School of Biology.