A study has suggested that a man's facial scars could increase his sex appeal for women but women reported that despite that they would not have a long term relationship with these men. The research conducted by a team from the universities of Liverpool and Stirling was based on an extensive study of 220 people in Britain. The study found that although women reported finding the scars attractive as long as it was a scar that looked like it was inflicted in anger and not due to chickenpox or acne, it worked only for a short term relationship.

The study, published in the journal 'Personality and Individual Differences' said that when women were faced with a picture of men with and without scars, the scarred ones were considered better looking. However the same did not hold true for men; a woman did not become more attractive for a man if she had a scar. The researchers felt that a scar is often associated with violence which could make a woman feel that the man with scar is more masculine and a risk taker; scar increases his sex appeal for a short term relationship.

"This is the first study to demonstrate that under certain circumstances post-traumatic scarring may increase a person's perceived social worth," the researchers said. "Our results suggest that under certain circumstances scars may advertise valued information about their bearers, and that the idea that scarring universally devalues social perceptions can no longer be assumed to be true," they added.