Researchers at Durham University have carried out a study and found that a person's attitude to sex are written all over the face -- in fact, the clues lie in the shape of the jaw, the size of the nose and the shape of the eyes.

According to the study's lead author Lynda Boothroyd, "It's possible to judge someone's sexual strategy simply from looking at their face. This shows these initial impressions may be part of how we assess potential mates -- or potential rivals -- when we first meet them."

The researchers came to the conclusion after surveying 700 men and women in their early 20s.

The participants were all asked to look at photographs of the opposite sex and judge how attractive they're and what their attitudes to sex might be -- such as whether they were interested in long or short-term relationships.

The answers were compared with the real-life behaviour and attitudes of the people in the images.

The researchers found that instant perceptions not only had a role in people's selection of partners, but that their interpretation of faces was more often right than wrong when determining the attitude towards one-night stands.

In fact, 72 per cent of the participants correctly identified the attitudes from photographs more than half of the time.

Men with masculine faces fared worst because women identified them as the most likely to be unfaithful and to make bad parents. The women whose faces were seen as the most attractive were those most likely to be willing to have casual sex, the study found.

"What was interesting was the strength of the preference among men for women who're interested in short-term sex and the strength of the preference of the women for men not interested in short-term sex," the British media quoted Boothroyd as saying.