Anyone who's ever been dumped knows how much rejection can hurt. But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining. And in this instance, if your last partner kicked you into touch it could make your next boyfriend like you more.
If your last boyfriend dumped you, your next one might like you more. Photo: Getty
That's the intruiging conclusion University of Michigan psychologists writing in the journal Evolutionary Psychology have come to. Apparently, men prefer women who were dumped in their previous relationship, as women who were the ones to cause the break-up make men more nervous (maybe because they think they could be next).
Women, on the other hand, prefer it when their new partner was the one to finish with their previous girlfriend. Why? According to the researchers, it could be something to do with the fact that if a man has ended a relationship, he's still trying to find the right woman - and that might be interpreted by other women as a sign of status or even dominance.
The tests involved almost 200 volunteers who were asked to sign up to a fake online dating site. They had to browse the profiles of other members on the site and rank how much they'd like to date them - all fake, of course. Among the profiles was the statement: 'My last relationship ended because...', with three possible answers (either they were dumped, the dumper or no comment).
The results showed that men rated women who'd just been dumped as more attractive than those who had ended their last relationship - with women rating men who'd dumped their last girlfriend higher.
Would knowing whether or not someone you were interested in romantically had been dumped or was the dumper in their last relationship change the way you see them?