An analysis of more than two billion phone calls and text messages reveals that women tend to speak to younger generation more than their partners when they grow older. The findings back evolutionary theory about the role of women in the survival of the genes, according to the probe by researchers in Britain, Finland, the United States and Hungary.
The investigators tracked the origin and destination of cellphone calls and text messages among 3.2 million people over seven months.
The changing web of contacts showed how men and women's social strategies mutate over time, the paper says.
"This suggests that the intimate structure of human social networks are driven much more by women's interests than by men's," said Robin Dunbar from Oxford University's Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology.
"Men are more casual in their social relationships, whereas women know what their social goals are and go for them."
Women spent more time communicating with the opposite sex when they were of childbearing age, the scientists said.
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Men's most frequent contact throughout their lives was consistently with their wife or girlfriend, although they made fewer calls than women did.
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The researchers knew only the age and gender of the subjects, the duration of their calls and the number of messages sent, as well as their postal codes. The information was provided by an unidentified phone company in a European country. Identities and other data were withheld.
The study appears in the journal Scientific Reports.
Source-AFP