Women who fear being attacked are driven into the arms of men like THIS

The fear of being mugged, raped or sexually assaulted sees women being attracted to hunks.

Previous studies suggested women who grow up in high crime areas find dominant men more attractive, perhaps because of the perceived protection their man can offer.

Now a new study by Leicester University psychologists found women attracted to dominant men generally feel more at risk of victimisation, even if the chance of falling victim to crime is low.

PhD researcher Hannah Ryder from the Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour, explained: "Physically formidable and dominant mates (PPFDM) appears to be associated with women's self-assessed vulnerability.

"Women with strong PPFDM feel relatively more at risk, fearful, and vulnerable to criminal victimisation compared to their counterparts, regardless of whether there are situational risk factors present.

"Our research suggests that the relationship between feelings of vulnerability, as measured by fear of crime, and women's preference for physically formidable and dominant mates is stable, and does not update according to environmental circumstances or relative level of protection needed."

The study examined whether the relationship between fear of crime and PPFDM was higher for crimes that cause relatively higher physical and psychological pain, such as sexual assault.

Across two studies in the lab and field, women observed images and real life situations that varied in the risk of crime, such as crime hotspots.

They were then asked to rate their perceived risk of victimisation - a measure of fear of crime - of various crimes.

This included male - and female - perpetrated physical assault and robbery and male-perpetrated rape.

In both studies, the research team also administered a scale that measured women's PPFDM, and assessed the association between women's PPFDM score and their risk perception scores.

The study found that women's fear of crime significantly differed in response to crime cues - for example location and time of day - and that overall fear of crime was related to PPFDM.

However, the relationship between PPFDM and fear did not vary in relation to risk situation, perpetrator gender, or crime type.

This suggested the psychological mechanisms underlying the relationship between perceived risk of victimisation and PPFDM are general in nature.

The study was published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour.