Researchers at the Museum of Science and Discovery, a think tank in the central England city of Birmingham, said both men and women follow their noses when seeking out a mate.

The study involved a highly scientific means of assessing attraction: women smelled sweaty T-shirts, and tended to prefer those worn by men with genes similar to those of their fathers.

"In choosing a partner we are subconsciously assessing their evolutionary fitness to be a mother of children or father provider and protector," said Dr George Forster, adviser to the think tank.

"Men are attracted to women because they smell like their mothers" and for the women it's the reverse, he said of the results.

"This is a pretty biological or evolutionary view. Our environment moulds our individual preferences but there is increasing evidence that our genes play an important part," he said.

People tend to prefer others with "a somewhat similar physical and psychological profile to our own," Forster said.

(Agencies)