Dating is a 'team sport', scientists say

While the typical view is that, in the dating world in particular, two's company yet three's a crowd, boffins have revealed that, if you're looking to be lucky in love, sometimes it's best to bring a friend along.

However, rather than simply opting for a 'wingman' or woman to laugh at the same jokes they've heard many times before and make themselves scarce upon request, dating buddies can be used in everyday life to separate the wheat from the chaff, scientists from the prestigious MIT have revealed.

Taking their cue from the animal world, where even primates cooperate with members of the same sex in courtship rituals, the team of researchers presented a number of male and female study participants with a range of hypothetical scenarios aimed at assessing to what extent they could be classed as team-players.

And, far from the 'dog eat dog' attitude so often associated with the art of modern courtship, the participants showed a remarkable willingness to help out their friends, particularly those of the same sex, even if there's seemingly nothing in it for themselves.

Specifically, the MIT team found that women will actively create barriers to block unattractive men off from their friends, while also initiating stalling tactics so as to allow the prospective partner to be more fully assessed.

In the same way, it was found that men help their buddies by defusing awkward situations and effectively 'breaking down barriers' that block them from desirable women, again even if they have nothing to gain from such a tactic.

What's more, a sizable proportion of those men questioned signaled that, should an unattractive woman be trying her luck with one of their friends in a club or bar, they would step in and ask her to dance so as to defuse the situation, while they would also be willing to usher an unattractive male away from a female friend.

In return, women also showed that they would be happy to pose as the girlfriend of a male friend so as to make him appear more desirable to the opposite sex and thus improve his dating success rate.

Explaining the findings, MIT professor Joshua M Ackerman stated that, though they seemingly go against basic evolutionary drives, "biological factors" are most probably behind these behaviour patterns.

"Courtship is often framed as a game, and researchers who study courtship behavior tend to focus on competitive aspects of this game," he said.

He added, however: "Sometimes, though, the mating game is a team sport."

While it may be hard to take dating advice from a number-crunching scientist, these MIT findings came out in the same week that global pop superstar Joe Jonas was snapped taking new love interest and fellow 'Camp Rock' actor Demi Lovato out for dinner at a New York restaurant - with big brother-come-wingman Kevin tagging along for support.