How do antisocial men manage to attract women? Or, to put it another way, why do some women always fall for bastards?

It seems that a little bit of flirting – smiling, raising eyebrows, nodding – goes a long way towards attracting a woman, even outweighing the negative effects of some men’s antisocial nature. “Antisocial men can make up a lot of ground just by being flirtatious,” says psychologist Andrew Clark.

When we meet people, we are not interacting with static images, yet such images are used in most studies of attractiveness. Realising this, Clark and colleagues at the University of Bristol, …