As any single woman will tell you, all the good men are taken.

But that makes them all the more attractive, apparently.

Research shows that single women view married men as better catches than bachelors.

The fact that they already have someone’s seal of approval adds to their desirability.

The phenomenon, known as ‘mate poaching’, could perhaps explain why Angelina Jolie fell for Brad Pitt, despite him being seemingly happily married to Jennifer Aniston.

The U.S. researchers showed 100 single and married female university students pictures of the same man and asked them how attractive they found him and whether they would try to start a romance with him.

In each case, the labelling on the photo had been tailored to suit what the volunteer liked in a man.

In addition, sometimes the man was described as single and other times he was said to be attached.

A group of men did the same with a picture of a woman.

The Oklahoma State University study found that the single men were most drawn to the woman when they thought she was single — but the reverse was true for the unattached women.