There's not a woman in the world who hasn't encountered an overly persistent man. There you are having drinks with the gals when Mr 'can't take a hint' rocks up to spoil your evening. 

But apparently, there's an actual scientific reason why they can't comprehend our obvious disinterest. 

A study by Psychonomic Bulletin & Review found that a huge proportion of straight men have major difficulty interpreting signals from potential female partners. 

According to Medical Daily, the results suggested that the more attractive a man deems a woman to be, the more he will think she's into him. (what?)

Apparently, the phenomenon occurs because the male projects his own sexual interest onto his love interest.

As part of the study, male and female participants were shown full-length photos of women and were asked how sexually interested she was. 

The options ranged from 'extremely rejecting' to 'extremely sexually interested' and everything in between.

Half the group were instructed to look out for body language and expressions while the other half were given no instructions at all. 

Both groups were then asked how the women's choice of clothing and perceived attractiveness influenced their decision. 

The difference in answers between the male and female participants were pretty much what you'd expect. For the most part, females used emotional cues and facial expression to make their judgements while males put a much greater emphasis on how attractive the women were .

What's more, the male participants were also deemed much more likely to assume sexual interest based entirely on what a woman looked like or what she was wearing. 

The results may not come as a huge surprise but they do confirm the existence of a rather disturbing and prevalent attitude towards sexual coercion.