Here's how to get someone who is way out of your league to like you, according to science

If you really like someone, and that person is much more attractive than you, it turns out the friend zone isn't actually a bad place to be.

A new study published in Psychological Science has found that the secret to winning your hot crush's heart really is as simple as dogged persistence.

University of Texas researchers talked to 167 heterosexual couples and found that for couples who described getting together as love at first sight, the partners rated each other similarly for physical attractiveness.

The longer it too for couples to start a romantic relationship after first meeting, the more mismatched they were likely to be.

The couples were asked how long they had known each other before dating and whether they had been friends first. One of the results of the study was that there was often disagreement between partners about whether they started off as friends or not.

“Our results indicate that perceptions of beauty in a romantic partner might change with time, as individuals get to know one another better before they start dating,” Lucy Hunt from the University of Texas at Austin told the Times (£):

Having more time to get acquainted may allow other factors to make that person appealing in ways that outshine more easily observable characteristics such as physical attractiveness.

• Lucy Hunt, University of Texas

So rejoice, all ye who feel the pain of unrequited love: there may be hope after all.

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