The reason women love to spend hours browsing in shops while men perfer to be in and out of the high street in minutes is down to their hunter-gathering past,claim scientists.

While women spent their days gathering food often with children,men were hunters who made specific plans about how to catch and kill their prey.The two approaches to how we used to obtain food mirrors how we shop in modern times,the study believes.

The researcher says women would spend hours trying to find the right outfit,present or object,because they had in the past spent ages trying to find the best quality and health-giving foods.Men on the other hand,decided in advance what animal they wanted to kill and then went looking for it.Once it was found- and killed--they returned home.

Professor Daniel Kruger of the University of Michigan said the study could be the answer to why there was so much conflict when couples shopped together.He said it could help couples avoid fights in the shops if they understand the reasons why each sex had different ways of deciding on the pertect present.