Show off your playful side and you'll attract a partner, says scientists.

While most mammals in the animal kingdom give up their playful side once they reach maturity, humans often continue to display playful behaviour which scientists say may be an evolutionary trick to lure potential partners.

They believe that playfulness is a trait women and men have developed to appear more youthful and therefore, attractive to the opposite sex.

"Playfulness in a male may signal to females that he is non-aggressive and less likely to harm them or their offspring," Professor Garry Chick of Penn State University told Science Daily. "A woman's playfulness, on the other hand, may signal her youth and fertility."

Chick and his team reviewed a list of 13 potential traits that people look out for when seeking a new partner and then added three more traits to the list - "playful", "fun loving", and "a sense of humour".

They then asked 164 male and 89 female undergraduate students to rank the traits from most to least desirable in potential mates.

Among the traits women ranked as most important in a good mate, sense of humour, fun loving and playfulness ranked from second to fourth respectively, while men ranked physically attractiveness, health, and good genes as most important traits in a potential partner.

Chick said that while results may be a little bit slanted due to the fact that the students were from a Western culture he still maintains that "signalling one's virtues as a potential long-term mate through playfulness is not far-fetched."

"Our results suggest that adult playfulness may result from sexual selection and signal positive qualities to potential long-term mates," he said.

The study was published in the American Journal Play.