Gentlemen do not just prefer blondes, but lighter-skinned women in general, a study has suggested.

Scientists looking into attractiveness in men and women suggest that men from all races find fairer-skinned woman most alluring, while women are the polar opposite and favour darker, brooding men.

They said the attraction is driven by preferences based on moral assumptions.

Men are subconsciously attracted to fairer-skinned icons such as Nicole Kidman or Kylie Minogue because of the skin tone's association with innocence, purity, modesty, virginity, vulnerability and goodness.

Women, on the other hand, pick men with darker complexions - such as film stars Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell or Jamie Foxx - because these are associated with sex, virility, mystery, villainy and danger.

The latter two actors were paired together in the recent Miami Vice movie, which topped the box office on both sides of the Atlantic despite lukewarm reviews.

Academics at the University of Toronto in Canada say their study proves the fair maiden of myth has a basis in scientific reality.

They studied more than 2,000 advertising photographs and found that the skin of white women was 15.2 per cent lighter than the skin of white males, and the skin of black women 11.1 per cent lighter than the skin of black men.

Dr Shyon Baumann, a sociologist involved in the study, said: "What the research shows is that our aesthetic preferences operate to reflect moral preferences.

"Within our cultures we have a set of ideals about how women should look and behave."

"Lightness and darkness have particular meanings attached to them and we subconsciously relate those moral preferences to women."

In effect, men drawn to darker looking women--such as actress Monica Bellucci--are expressing a preference for danger.

Dr Baumann said this appreciation of a darker complexion in women is "less common" but "appears to coexist with a view of such women as more overtly sexual.

一项研究表明，男士不只青睐皮肤白皙、金发碧眼的女性，总的来说，他们对浅肤色的女性都比较感兴趣。

科研人员对男性和女性的吸引力特征进行探究后发现，所有种族的男性都认为肤色较浅的女性最具吸引力，而女性的观点则正好相反，她们更青睐肤色黝黑的深沉男士。

研究人员称，这种喜好取决于对异性的道德假定偏好。

男性潜意识里更青睐皮肤白皙的女明星，比如妮可·基德曼、凯莉·米洛，因为这种肤色让人联想到天真、单纯、端庄、纯洁、柔弱和善良。

然而，女性则更青睐肤色较深的男性，比如影星强尼·戴普、柯林·法勒尔和杰米·福克斯，因为这样的肤色给人一种性感、阳刚、神秘、邪恶和危险的感觉。

柯林·法瑞尔和杰米·福克斯联合主演的影片《迈阿密风云》尽管得到的评价并不高，但它在大西洋两岸均取得了票房冠军的好成绩。

加拿大多伦多大学的研究人员称，该研究证明传说中的窈窕淑女是有现实的科学依据的。

研究小组成员之一、社会学家施恩·鲍曼恩说：“研究表明，我们的审美喜好能反映出我们的道德喜好。”

“我们的文化中存在一套有关女性外表和举止的完美典范。”

“因此，肤色深浅也被赋予了特殊含义，我们潜意识里会将那些道德喜好与女性联系在一起。”

实际上，有的男性喜欢像女影星莫妮卡·贝鲁奇这种深肤色的女性，这说明他们偏爱危险感。

鲍曼恩说，喜欢深肤色女性的人“并不多见”，但同时有观点认为，“这种肤色的女性显得更加性感”。