Why touching a chap's arm is the best way to his heart as the art of physical contact is explained

Ladies, the secret of flirting isn’t fluttering your eyelashes, flicking your hair or laughing at his jokes.

Psychologists have shown the quickest way for a woman to gain a man’s interest is by gently touching his arm.

Researchers recruited a 20-year-old woman, rated ‘averagely attractive’ by a panel of 18 men, to approach 64 young, single males chosen at random in a bar.

Key contact: Researchers found women could attract a man's interest by touching his arm

She asked each of them to help her get a key into a key ring.

During half the encounters, the woman then touched the man for one or two seconds on his forearm before thanking him and returning to her table.

Observers found a third of the men who had been touched struck up a conversation with the woman, but that only 16 per cent tried to talk to her if they had no physical contact.

Referring to the power of touch, Dr Nicolas Gueguen from the University of South Brittany, who led study, said: ‘Numerous researchers have found that such brief non-verbal contact significantly increases compliance.’

It works the other way too. A previous study by Dr Gueguen found that women were more likely to dance with men if they were touched lightly on the arm beforehand.