Go on get outraged (if you are a woman) or deny it (If you are a man).

A study in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior by University of Michigan academic Stephanie Brown shows that when men are looking for a long term mate they find subordinate women more attractive. Oooh look at that cute young thing that that older businessman has conquered.

Compare that to when men are on the look out for a bit of casual rumpy pumpy. In these circumstances they are quite happy to, well let's say, engage with more superior females.

We all know what an excellent hunting ground the workplace is when seeking that ellusive life time partner and Dr Stephanie found that in this environment men found women holding subordinate positions to themselves more attractive than those who were peers or superiors. Dr Stephanie says

Our results demonstrate that male preference for subordinate women increases as the investment in the relationship increases. This pattern is consistent with the possibility that there were reproductive advantages for males who preferred to form long-term relationships with relatively subordinate partners.

It all gets back to parentage of the womens future children. Evolutionarily speaking it is a big bummer to invest huge amounts of resources in raising another males offspring particularly in situations where the resources are relatively scarce. The more powerful and independant the woman the higher the risk of infidelity is perceived and this diminishes the womans attractiveness. Consistent with this hypothesis is the observation that adult males typically prefer partners who are younger and make less money.

To add to this rich tapestry of conflicting objectives Daniel Kruger, one of Dr Stephanie's compatriots at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, found that a woman who is out for a bit of casual action actually prefers your "screw around" sort of guy. As long as she has a reliable SNAG at home to raise the kids afterwards it is in her evolutionary interest to get impregnated with genes that are particularly good at getting themselves into the next generation. This may go some way to accounting for the fact that current paternaty testing results are showing that 20% of men are not in fact the father of at least one of "their" children.

Read more on Dr Stephanies research here. and Dr Dans here.