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According to scientists who researched the psychology of sexual attraction, opposites really do attract as ’stressed men make unconventional sexual decisions.’

Scientists at the University of Trier in Germany found that young men who were under pressure preferred erotic pictures of female nudes who were had the opposite facial expressions to themselves. On the other hand, men who were more relaxed were attracted to females who had similar features.

Previous studies showed that men and women who fall in love tend to resemble each other in many ways, especially in facial characteristics.

Psychobiologist Johanna Lass-Hannemann, who led the study, said: “Our findings show that stress affects human mating preferences: unstressed individuals showed the expected preference for similar mates but stressed individuals seem to prefer dissimilar mates.

“Our results provide further support for facial self resemblance as a potential modulator of sexual attractiveness.

“Furthermore, our study is the first to show that stress influences human mating preferences, and provides further support for the influence of stress on mate choice and sexual behaviour.”

Past studies suggest that people tend to find self-resembling faces more trustworthy than dissimilar faces.

This could explain why some men pursue a long-term relationship with more well built women who look like them.

But there is also evidence that people who are stressed have more short-term relationships than unstressed counterparts.