Men behave better in front of beautiful women. Sure, good looking ones.

Nothing warms a female heart like seeing a man helping an elderly person cross the road or lifting a stranger's buggy up a flight of stairs.

However in news that may shake your faith in human goodwill, it seems that men perform good deeds only as an attempt to impress women.

Dubbed 'peacocking’ after the male peacocks display of its colourful tail to impress the female, new research also demonstrates that the more attractive the woman, the more grand and frequent the good deeds.

It seems that while men perform more good acts if they are being watched by the opposite sex, the same is not true of women, who perform the same regardless of whether they are being watched.

Men and women were asked to play a 'public good' game on a computer in a group.

They were each given £3 at the start and could either chose to put in into a group account that would then be doubled at the end of the study and distributed between 6 random participants, or keep the money in a private account.

Participants were watched by either a male, female, or no one.

It was found that men donated far more when watched by a member of the opposite sex, while women's donations remained much the same in all three conditions. 

Men's donations also correlated positively with their attractiveness rating of the female observer.

In addition, men perform more acts the more attractive they rated the female observer to be.

It suggests that men will compete with each other through public goods to impress women.

Okay I confess. Men will be men. We are moved by what we see. So is  it our fault.