The age of chivalry is not dead, but only if the damsel in roadside distress is particularly attractive.
A new Irish survey shows that over 90 per cent of men would stop to help a stranded female motorist change a wheel but 20 per cent of them admitted that the lady's attractiveness would influence their decision.
The survey of over 300 Irish motorists, carried out by tyre company Semperit, showed that while most men - 92 per cent - will happily pull over to help a woman in trouble, less than half had actually done so. The same was true of women drivers, though only 71 per cent said they would stop to help.
Female reticence to lend a hand turned vindictive when confronted with the possibility of helping an attractive woman driver - a quarter said they would definitely not pull over to help a pretty woman.
Willingness to pull over and lend assistance was split geographically too with drivers in drivers in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway markedly less likely to help out than drivers in less urbanised areas.
The amount of daylight too offered a get-out clause with especially, and perhaps unsurprisingly, female motorists, being reluctant to stop - fewer than one-third said they would pull over. Men claimed to be less concerned: only 25 per cent said they would not stop at night-time
The survey also found drivers of small cars are less likely to help out than Jeep and MPV drivers. This is in line with the finding that motorists with children were more likely to help out than those without.