Your lover believes you're more beautiful than you actually are

London, May 14 (UNI) Depressed that you don't look like Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt? Ask your partner for they think you are the most beautiful person they ever met.

According to a new study, most of us believe our partners are far better looking than they actually are.

In a study to show beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, researchers at the Groningen University in the Netherlands asked 93 couples to rate their own and their partners' attractiveness.

They found the scores men gave their girlfriends and wives were much higher than the scores the women gave themselves. The same was true for the women. They rated their husbands and boyfriends as much better looking than the men regarded themselves.

The couples had been together for an average of 14 years and were typically in their late 30s.

''This assumption is consistent with a broader line of research that shows that individuals tend to overestimate the extent to which members of the opposite sex value certain physical attributes,'' the scientists wrote in a report for the journal Body Image.

''Whereas women typically believe that men prefer a female shape thinner and larger busted than men actually prefer, men falsely assume that women prefer a heavier, more muscular and larger chested male physique than women actually want,'' they added.

''Realising that one's partner holds a relatively positive view about one's body may alleviate some body-image concerns as well as the negative consequences that these concerns may have on the relationship,'' the report said.

Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the Hertfordshire University, said, ''Most people are optimists - they have a notion that the world is much rosier than it is.'' ''They like to think they have an attractive partner because it makes them feel better,'' Prof Wiseman told the Daily Mail.

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