Want to be popular? Then skip the Botox

So here's the dilemma. To age or not to age. Those who choose the latter may  opt for the surgeon's knife (or the cosmetic practitioner's Botox syringe). But while having cosmetic procedures may help you feel better about yourself – if you're that way inclined, that is – it won't necessarily make other people view you in a particularly good light.

At least that's the conclusion of a study carried out by University of Toronto researchers and published in the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.

In fact the study's findings suggest that you're more likely to be admired by other people if you fight the signs of ageing by staying out of the sun and looking after your skin by using face creams, as opposed to having a face lift or Botox injections.

Apparently, if you use face creams instead of expensive cosmetic procedures to stay looking young, it means you are less vain – which means people will feel warmer towards you.

But isn't it a case of you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't? Society is obsessed with youth, and just about everyone – even people in their 20s and 30s – feels the pressure these days to stay looking as young as humanly possible.  Yet if this study is anything to go by, adopting radical measures to maintain that elusive youthful glow is still very much frowned upon.

The less you do to try and look young, the more people will like you, the study suggests. While that's great news for those who have good genes, it's not going to be much comfort to the rest of us who need more than a little help in the youthful looks department.

But there is some good news. Staying out of the sun is, thankfully, something most people can afford to do. And even if you can't stay out of the sun – if you work outdoors, for instance – there's always that good old fallback: high SPF sun protection cream. And the great thing is you can buy it in all good pharmacies, along with quality moisturisers and other skincare products. 

Better still, be seen leaving your local pharmacy armed with a shopping bag full of face creams rather than sneaking out of the nearest cosmetic surgery with those tell-tale pin marks on your forehead, and you could be all the more popular for it.