Men may be better at reconciling with enemies and opponents than women, a new study suggests.
Researchers from Harvard University and Emmanuel College examined how long boxers, table tennis, badminton and tennis players spent touching each other at the end of a contest, and found that men spent significantly longer embracing each other than their female counterparts.
Speaking to the BBC Professor Joyce Benson who was part of the study said, "What you'll see is that many times females brush their fingers against each other.
"You're expected by the sport to do something but it's so frosty. However, with the males even with a handshake you can see the warmth, the tightness of it.
"I expected this would be the least strong in boxing, because you try to kill the other person, but it's the strongest in this sport, there really is this sense of love for your opponent which is beyond my understanding."
The study, which looked at athletes from 44 different countries, ties in with the "male-warrior hypothesis" that suggests that men being able to reconcile with different groups has been vital in human evolution.
Professor Benson continued, ""We believe that human social structure resembles that of chimpanzees in which males cooperate in groups of unrelated same-sex peers and females cooperate more with family members and one or two good friends who act as family."
"Human males form large cooperative organizations that have changed the world."
"Females traditionally invest more in families to keep their children and other family members alive and thriving."
"We expect that this is an evolved sex difference in social structure that still operates today."