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London, Aug 22: The stereotype that women are addicted to shopping really is true, for a new study has found that the fairer sex has a evolutionary gene which makes them born to shop.

The finding is based on a study conducted by University of California researchers who found that women really are better than men than not only finding their way around stores, but also at remembering just where those fruits, vegetables are stored in shelves.

The reason for this lies in the evolution, the researchers state.

Women, over the centuries, have honed their skill of finding the best fruits and berries to sniffing out the best bargains.

As a part of their study the researchers asked 86 men and women to take a trip around a farmers' market.

All the participants were given a list of stalls to visit and foods to sample.

After they did so, they were asked how much they liked the foods that were sampled, and asked to map out the locations of the stalls they had visited.

The researchers found that women were much better than their male counterparts when it came to remembering the stalls' positions.

A further analysis revealed that women’s memories were influenced not by how much they liked the foods but by the number of calories they contained, as they were able to remember foods with higher calorie count better.

This, they say, is further evidence of an evolutionary origin, as our ancestors would have needed to memorise the location of the foods that would give the most energy.

"The finding that nutritional quality enhances spatial memory further supports the idea that our task is engaging a foraging-related spatial adaptation," the Daily Mail quoted the researchers as stating.

The research is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.