Philanthropy beat: Doing good is good for love life

What qualities, if any, do you think make someone sexy?

That's the question posed in a new survey indicating that doing good could be good for your love life.

Of the 2,059 Americans surveyed, 52 percent said a person who "cares about giving to others" was sexy. That was just 1 percentage point lower than having a "physically fit body."

The survey, released for Valentine's Day, was sponsored by Razoo, an online fundraising platform that facilitated more than $60 million in donations to charities and causes last year.

"It was encouraging to see that people aren't just thinking about physical and material traits when choosing a partner," said Razoo CEO Lesley Mansford.

While many surveys focus on physical traits considered attractive, this one looked at values. It was conducted by the marketing research firm Harris Interactive in November.

Doing good, while attractive to both sexes, apparently is held in higher esteem by women. Sixty-three percent of the women surveyed found it sexy, compared with 40 percent of men.

Overall, having a sense of humor and treating "family and friends well" were the top two attributes cited most by men and women, considered sexy by 71 percent and 67 percent, respectively.

Survey results did not vary significantly by geographic region. However, one attribute stood out. Only 40 percent of Midwesterners thought that being "attractively dressed" made someone sexy, compared with 48 percent on the East Coast and 44 percent overall.

Could those layers of winter clothing be skewing results?

Razoo hopes that love birds will heed the findings.

"Valentine's Day is traditionally about chocolate and flowers," said Mansford. "How about an alternative, like giving your loved one a gift card so that [they] can donate to a charity or cause they care about?"