A new research has discovered that when tense, men get drawn towards a broader range of women.

Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study claimed that people are normally appealed towards females with similar facial features to their own, but after a brief but stressful experience, gents' tastes change to take in a wider variety of women.

In the research, researchers discovered that stress-free males ranked women on average 14% less attracting if they looked very different from themselves compared with females who looked alike

But a group of stressed men found dissimilar women 9% more appealing.

The research comprised fifty healthy heterosexual male pupils, reports The Guardian.

Johanna Lass-Hennemann, who led the study at the University of Trier in Germany, said, "Men have a tendency to approach dissimilar mates and to rate these to be more pleasant when they are acutely stressed."

"[But] we are not sure how this might reflect in true mating decisions," Johanna added.

The researcher considers that stress might augment male's tendency to "outbreed", or procreate with more genetically dissimilar females, with the potential benefit that any kids born from the relationship might be better equipped to deal with a stressful environment. (With Input from Agencies)