The secrets of sexual attraction will be revealed by avatars of various shapes and sizes, as part of an online experiment by Sydney academics. People are being asked to rate the images of male and female computer-generated avatars with different physical features, by the researchers of University of NSW.

Half of the less-popular images will be collected and new body shapes will be "virtually bred" from parent avatars who will have features which are rated as most attractive by people, who will take part in the experiment.

The experiment will help people with body image problems visualize that there are different kinds of attractiveness, according to Professor Rob Brooks, who heads the project.

He said, “I think it's important to demonstrate to people that there are probably a number of different ways to be attractive and that there's not one stereotypical beauty queen or swimwear model type of attractive body”.

The experiment will confirm that the usual opinion that sexual attraction is based on the relative proportion of different body types to each other, shared Prof Brooks. These results may also be applied to real life. People, who are really interested to take part in the experiment, may log in the research website bodylab. biz.