Men look more attractive when wearing face masks, a new study has revealed.
Face masks
Experts at Cardiff University asked 43 women to look at a number of images and rate the attractiveness of the opposite sex in face coverings and those without.
The pictures showed men wearing different types of face coverings such as a plain cloth mask, a blue medical face mask and even holding a plain black book covering the bottom half of their face.
The female participants found those wearing the cloth mask far more attractive than those with no face coverings or whose faces were partly obscured by the book.
Dr. Michael Lewis, an expert in faces who helped conduct the study, told The Guardian newspaper: "We wanted to test whether this had changed since face coverings became ubiquitous and understand whether the type of mask had any effect.
"Our study suggests faces are considered most attractive when covered by medical face masks. This may be because we're used to healthcare workers wearing blue masks and now we associate these people in caring or medical professions."