Dating can be a minefield – with more than one in three men in North America and Europe single at any given time, researchers say.

Fortunately, scientists have revealed the most likely explanations for a single status.

Researchers analysed thousands of comments posted in response to an anonymous question shared on Reddit in a bid to understand why singlehood is so widespread.

The question simply read: 'Guys, why are you single?'

Thousands of Reddit users replied to the post, allowing scientists to pour over the responses to find the most common explanations.

Scientists filtered the results to only include posts from people who were not willingly single and wanted to be in a relationship.

Poor looks, being short and baldness were the most frequent reasons put forward by the online community, followed by lack of confidence.

The dating world can often be a minefield, leaving more than one in three men single and alone. To understand why singlehood is so widespread, scientists analysed thousands of comments that were received following an anonymous post on Reddit in 2017 (stock image)

Scientists led by Menelaos Apostolou from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus anonymously quizzed men on Reddit why they thought they were still single.

They analysed more than 6,700 comments and revealed the 43 most common reasons people listed for being unable to find a partner.

Not making the effort or being uninterested in a long-term relationship were ranked high on the list, along with a lack of flirting skills and being too shy.

Some of the respondents said they had been so badly burnt during previous relationships they did not dare to get into another, according to the research published in Evolutionary Psychological Science.

Others felt they were too picky, did not have the opportunity to meet available women, or had different priorities.

Some of the men in the study had experienced mental health issues, sexual problems, or struggled with illness, disability or addiction.

Dr Apostolou says there are evolutionary reasons why some modern men are unable to successfully approach women.

According to the so-called mismatch argument, their social skills do not align with the qualities needed today to make a good impression.

Dr Apostolou says there are evolutionary reasons why some modern men are unable to successfully approach women (stock image)

In a pre-industrial context, marriages were arranged, male-male competition was strong, and wives were sometimes obtained by force.

While in one respect this left men with little choice about who would be their wives, it also meant their looks were irrelevant, and they did not need to know how to attract the opposite sex.

Socially inept and unattractive men may not have been single because their relationships were regulated by their parents.

'Single modern men often lack flirting skills because in an ancestral pre-industrial context, the selection pressures on mechanisms which regulated mating effort and choosiness were weak,' Dr Apostolou said.

'Such skills are needed today, because in post-industrial societies mate choice is not regulated or forced, but people have to instead find mates on their own.'