Women out there wanting to take all the glory for themselves the next time they play with their Infinity tokens and board games might want to blast a bit of rock music out and steer well clear of Mozart.
This is because a new study from Imperial College London and the Royal College of Music has found that while playing Operation, men who listened to AC/DC made more mistakes and were slower at the game than men who listened to either the sound of an operating theatre or Mozart.
Interestingly, women didn't seem to be distracted by any of the rock music played, none of the tracks seemingly having making no difference to performance or speed while playing. Although it took women longer to remove the body parts, they did make fewer mistakes than men while doing so.
Dr Daisy Fancourt, lead author of the research from the Centre for Performance Science (a collaboration between the university and the college of music), said: "Although this study is clearly tongue in cheek, and was all performed in our spare time, it is part of our wider research into the effect of music on performance - particularly in a medical setting such as an operating theatre."
So there you have it! With Christmas just a few short days away, families will be getting together in no time and playing all sorts of different board games. If you're a bit on the competitive side, playing a few choice pieces of music could see you claim victory for your very own.
What do you think of this study? Do you reckon it has legs and is worth giving a go or would you rather not try and cheat your way to a win? Let us know in the comments below.
