Male singletons counting down the days to Valentine's Day might want to take note.

A woman is more attracted to a man when she is uncertain about how much he likes her, according to scientists.

A study published in the journal Psychological Science said: 'When people first meet, it may be that popular dating advice is correct - keeping people in the dark about how much we like them will increase how much they think about us and will pique their interest.'

To arrive at their conclusion, the researchers - Erin Whitchurch and Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia and Daniel Gilbert of Harvard University - analysed 47 female undergraduates.

But, in order to get a natural response, the University of Virginia volunteers didn't know the exact nature of the experiment they were taking part in.

Instead, they were told scientists were conducting a survey into whether Facebook could work as an online dating website.

Each student was told that male students from two other universities had viewed her profile and those of 15 to 20 other females.

Then the women were shown four men's Facebook profiles that they thought were real, but were actually fictitious.

Some of the women were told they'd seen the four men who liked them the most, while others were informed these were four men who rated them about average.

A third group was told the men could be either the ones who liked them most or the ones who liked them about average - so those women didn't know about the level of the men's interest in them.

Women who believed the men liked them a lot were more attracted to the men than women who thought the men liked them only an average amount.

However, the women who found the men most attractive were the ones who weren't sure whether those men were into them or not.

The authors said: 'Numerous popular books advise people not to display their affections too openly to a potential romantic partner and to instead appear choosy and selective.'

(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)