It’s the plotline of many a cheesy rom-com: Woman rejected by a good-looking lothario is scooped up by the Average Joe who’s been waiting in the wings all along.

But in real life it may be a very different story, according to a study.

Researchers found that, rather than being grateful for the fall-back option, being rejected by an attractive man actually makes a woman more likely to turn down an unattractive one, and to describe him harshly.

Not interested: Scientist say that women who have been rejected distancing themselves from an unattractive man to help her retain the idea that she is high status, cushioning the blow of the rejection

It is as if distancing herself from the unattractive man helps her retain the idea that she is high status, cushioning the blow of the rejection.

‘Participants rejected by the attractive man also derogated the unattractive man even when the unattractive man offered acceptance,’ said the psychologists from the University of Toronto.

‘Social psychologists theorise that individuals seek connection following rejection.

‘However, accepting connection from a low status other may imply that one is of similarly low status, which may call into question one’s prospects for future acceptance.’

No chance: Experts say theorise that accepting connection from a low status other may imply that one is of similarly low status, which may call into question one’s prospects for future acceptance

For the study, researchers recruited 126 single women and created dating profiles for them.

The participants were told that these profiles would be viewed and evaluated by two men that they could potentially meet at the end of the experiment.

They then read the two men’s profiles (which had actually been written by the researchers); one had a photo of an attractive man attached, while the other was paired with a photo of an unattractive man.

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Afterwards the women were told whether the men were interested in meeting them or whether they had turned them down.

Writing in the Journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science the researchers said: ‘Participants who were rejected by one of the men distanced themselves from and derogated him as indicated by less interest in meeting him and lower ratings of attractiveness, responsiveness, and romantic appeal compared to those in the acceptance and control conditions.

‘Of greatest interest, participants who were rejected by the attractive man were also relatively uninterested in meeting the unattractive man and derogated him even when he was accepting.’

The researchers then carried out a second, identical experiment with another 166 women and found that the same thing happened.

‘Being rejected by the attractive man appeared to make participants less willing to affiliate with the unattractive man and more inclined to evaluate him harshly,’ the researchers concluded.

‘This is consistent with our hypothesis that individuals distance themselves from unattractive others following rejections that call into question their attractiveness.