The key to Christmas shopping could come down to understanding the difference between male and female preferences says a Bucks New University professor – and the fact that each gender tends to buy things they like the look of themselves.

Gloria Moss, professor of management and marketing, believes that men’s and women’s choices of Christmas presents and cards come down to their gender - with men and women tending to like the things their own sex designs.

Prof Moss, whose new book, Why Men like Straight Lines and Women like Polka Dots, has just been published, said a sample of 75 per cent of men and women she surveyed preferred designs created by the same sex.

She said: “I have carried out years of research showing that what men and women create and prefer visually can be poles apart in terms of colour, shape and themes.

“So, modern consumerism and the spiritual message of Christmas can be reconciled through the selfless process of setting aside personal preferences and offering gifts that will have real appeal to another person.

“If you don't want your gifts to be recycled to the next unfortunate, remember that your idea of beauty may not be his or hers. Even with cards, I found that 75 per cent of a sample of men preferred the male-designed realistic scene with a corresponding proportion of women preferring the more stylised and child-like version designed by a woman.

“The strength of this ‘own-sex visual preference’ holds good across cultures and types of design so, as you contemplate another day or two of frenzied purchasing, you might wonder what lies behind this.”

Prof Moss said that after height, the biggest difference between men and women is not emotional but relates to the visuo-spatial domain.

She said her research has shown men have better visual rotation skills and targeting accuracy, served by having eyes spaced 5mm further apart than those of women, while up to 50per cent of women may have four colour pigments to men's three, providing access to hundreds of millions more colours.