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It is one of the pitfalls of the dating game for men - you spot a woman giving off all the signs that she is interested in you at a bar, only to be brushed off when you make your move.

But new research suggests that men may be better at spotting when a woman is flirting with them than this common scenario may suggest.

In a study of dating behaviour in nearly 500 heterosexuals, scientists found that women interpret the sexual intentions of other flirtatious women in the same way as men do.

Is she flirting or not? Interpreting the subtle signals that suggest someone at the bar is interested in you is a difficult game for both sexes, but men have most often been accused of misinterpreting a simple smile

Yet when they reported what their own intentions would be if they behaved in the same way, the women said they were far less likely to have sex with a man.

According to Carin Perilloux, who led the research at the department of psychology at Texas State University, this suggests that women tend to understate their own sexual intentions.

He said: 'These results imply that men might be accurate in perceiving and reporting women's sexual intentions 

'Perhaps women are under-reporting because they themselves are unaware of their true intentions, or because they are using self-reports to control the way they are perceived by other people.'

Previous research has helped to maintain the view that men often overestimate the intentions of the opposite sex.

While men might believe women who wear provocative clothing, laugh at their jokes and play with their hair are giving them a sign that they are interested, women often feel otherwise. 

Although not conclusive, the latest study, which is published in the journal Psychological Science, suggests an alternative interpretation of what may be going on.

Initially the scientists presented 271 men and 213 women with a series of 'flirting' behaviours encountered on dates, including things like holding hands, complimenting their appearance, cooking dinner and asking them in for a drink.

Men rated the sexual intentions of women who engaged in each of these behaviours from 'extremely unlikely' to 'extremely likely'.

Using the same scale, the women rated how likely they would be to have sex with a man if they themselves had performed any of those actions.

The men rated women's intentions significantly higher than women did after 12 of the 15 'flirting' behaviours.

Back off: Misinterpreting the signs that are being given off by the opposite sex can lead to awkward, and at times unpleasant encounters, particularly in the office 

Then in a second experiment they asked participants to guess how women in the first study responded and the men reported similar estimate as they did in the first.

Women's responses, however, started to reflect the men's guesses, suggesting that women know that other women under report their genuine sexual intentions, the researchers said.

A final experiment saw the participants rate each flirting behaviour in terms of what they believed other women would say and what they believed was actually intended.

The researchers wrote: "Men and women provided higher ratings for what women want than for what women say. The discrepancy was much larger for female raters than for male raters."

Despite the findings, the researchers emphasis that it is important to remember that no means no regardless of the circumstances.

The findings of their study also only measured assumptions and intentions so further work would be needed to determine whether it reflected real behaviour when on a date.