These are the parts of a man's body women check out first, according to science

Okay, so picture this: you and your girlfriends have stopped to get coffee in the middle of your Saturday morning walk'n'talk and a hunk of a dude is jogging towards you.

One of you probably spills their latte a little. Two of you do "the eyes" to one another, and then there's always the person who misses the whole thing ,and only catches a glimpse of the eye-candy when they're running off into the distance already.

Okay, while not every person and their squad is out there to ogle the finer specimens of the general public, it's true that women check out men. But while everyone knows that the first things a guy will look at when seeing a woman are her boobs, butt and waist (sorry, but science says so too), no-one really knows what it is that girls first inspect when looking at a guy.

Businessman and woman flirting in the office A man's abdominal region is what gets the most attention from women according to a new study (Credit: Getty)

What parts of a man's body do women check out first

Until now. A study done with advanced eye-tracking technology from London-based company, Think Eye Tracking, found exactly what "hotspots" on the male body women look at first.

They were able to follow the eye movements of participants who looked at the same photo of a man in a bathing suit.

What they found was that women are apparently not all that phased about a man's, err... "package", and spent no time looking at his trunks.

Interestingly, the male participants of the study actually spent quite a considerable amount of time looking at the guy's nether-regions.

Instead, women first look at the abdominal region, followed by the face, shoulders and biceps. A heat map of the most-viewed areas of the image done with the eye-tracking tech shows the results below.

parts of a man's body women look at first The Think Eye Tracking research uncovered some surprising results (Credit: Think Eye Tracking)

Women subconsciously seek people who can provide for and protect them

But why are we mostly preoccupied with the torso, face and arms?

Sex and relationship expert Wendy Walsh, PhD and author of The 30-Day Love Detox, says that it's all thanks to our primal instincts. Women are coded to seek someone who can provide for us and protect us, and frankly – the penis has nothing to do with that.

"Think about our cavewoman brains," she says. "We want to know, 'Can this guy climb a tree and pick fruit for me? Can this guy slay a woolly mammoth for me?'"

Well before ladders and tranquilliser guns were invented, men needed strong abs, shoulders and arms to be able to protect, provide for and otherwise look after a woman (and her offspring).

And even though we hardly do the same activities as our ancient ancestors, women are still going to seek those characteristics in the opposite sex as a natural, instinctive behaviour.

A woman kissing a man's bare chest. Apparently a woman's primal instincts have a huge influence over what she looks for in a partner (Credit: Stocksnap)

The bottom line

It's the same reason men look at breasts, hip-to-waist ratios and butts – deep down they're looking for a young, fertile, healthy-looking woman with child-bearing hips and an ample bosom to provide for little baby cave dwellers.

So next time you see the hot dude jogging in the park, maybe you'll be more aware of what part of his body your eyes wander to first.