Male drivers more likely to give way to others than women: Study

A new study has found that men are more polite than women when it comes to sharing the road.

However the research into driving behaviour also revealed that about 60% of Brisbane drivers, both male and female, show selfish behaviour when it comes to sharing the road by not stopping at intersections to let another motorist in, while 40 per cent did.

The survey of 1,000 motorists at three Brisbane intersections, carried by University of Queensland PhD student Redzo Mujcic and Professor of Economics Paul Frijters, found age, gender and type of car could affect the attitude of drivers on the road.

Men were found to be the more caring of the genders - at least on the roads - where 42% of men were more likely to stop for others, but only 37% of women would stop.

Both women and men were twice as likely to stop for someone of the opposite gender.

Mujcic said he was most surprised to discover that men would stop more often than women.

"We found males stop more often for females, but also that females stop less often for females than males stop for males," the Courier Mail quoted him as saying.