I’ll have what she's having! Women prefer men who have been 'road-tested' in previous relationships - but not too many

我会想要她男友那样的类型!女性喜欢有恋爱史的男性——但是风流韵事不要太多

• Australian scientists say that women take part in 'mate copying'

• 澳大利亚科学家表示，女性喜欢所谓的“配偶复制”

• Their study showed that females preferred men who had ex-girlfriends

• 他们的研究表明，女性喜欢有过前女友的男性

• Researchers found optimum number of previous partners was one or two

• 研究人员发现前任伴侣的最佳数目是1个或者2个

• Men with no old flames were less desirable especially with younger women

• 没有恋爱史的男性没那么有吸引力，尤其对于年轻女性更是如此

• But males with five previous partners were found to be the least appealing

• 但是据研究发现，有过5任前女友的男性， 是最没有吸引力的

What’s the best way for single men to land a girlfriend?

单身男性找女朋友的最佳方法是什么?

According to one study the answer turns out to be a bit of a catch-22 - women prefer men who have had previous relationships, but having too many partners is detrimental。

这个问题的答案有些难以置信——一项研究表明，女性更喜欢有恋爱史的男性，当然有过太多就不好了。

In fact, Australian researchers found that having too many partners was less desirable than someone who had none at all。

事实上，澳大利亚的研究人员发现，恋爱史太多丰富的男性，比毫无恋爱经验的人更不受欢迎。

The study was published in the journal Human Nature and is somewhat amusingly titled ‘I want what she’s having’。

这则研究发布在《人性》期刊上，并且稍加调侃地加以标题“我要她有的”。

In it, Ryan Anderson and Michele Surbey of James Cook University in Queensland, Australia looked at how human mating compared to the rest of the animal kingdom。

在文章中，来自澳大利亚昆士兰詹姆斯库克大学的莱恩·安德森和米歇尔·塞比，将人类和其他动物的寻偶行为进行了对比。

They noted how non-human animals prefer males that have had had previous association with other females, a phenomenon known as 'mate copying'。

他们注意到了人类之外的动物更喜欢那些之前与其他雌性有过接触的雄性，这种现象被称作“配偶复制”。

The researchers investigated ‘whether humans also exhibit mate copying’, and if women preferred experienced men。

研究人员随后调查了“人类是否也有这种配偶复制的行为”，即女性是否更喜欢有恋爱经验的男人。

In the study, 123 female university students rated men pictured alone or with one, two or five women represented by silhouettes。

在这项研究中，123名女大学生被要求为只有男性一人，或者包含一名男性以及1，2或5名女性剪影的照片中的男性打分。

The silhouettes, or lack thereof, represented how many relationships they had had in the last four years。

这些剪影代表着这些男性过去四年中拥有的女朋友数量。

The findings showed that women preferred men who had one or two previous partners, as opposed to those who’d had none.Men with five previous partners, however, were the least desirable。

结果表明女性青睐那些有过一到两名女朋友的男性更胜于没有恋爱经验的男性。然而有过五位女朋友的男性， 在这项调查中排名垫底。

‘Maybe that's an indication that he's promiscuous or unable or unwilling to commit, maybe he's a bit flaky - for whatever reason, he just can't hold down relationship so that was seen as a huge turn-off,’ the researchers told ABC。

“或许这暗示着他(有过五位女朋友的男性)滥交朋友或者不能够或者不愿意负责，或者他就是有些奇葩——无论出于何种原因，他就是无法保持住一段关系，这是被女性否决的很重要的因素”，研究人员告诉ABC频道。

And age was also a factor - younger women were more likely to ‘mate copy’ than older women。

年龄也是一个选择配偶的因素——年轻的女性较年长的女性更容易发生“配偶复制”的行为。

‘Our results suggest that women do not always make mate choices independent of one another [and] there appears to be a significant desirability advantage for men who have been previously selected as a romantic partner,’ the authors added。

“我们的研究结果表明女性并不总是独立选择配偶，因此那些曾经被其他女性选为配偶的男性便在新一轮的选择中有着更大的优势。”文章作者随后写到。

‘Humans are nothing more than a really pretentious species of animal,’ Anderson added。

“人类不过是一种极尽矫饰的动物物种而已，”安德森补充道。