Female monkeys are reluctant to follow the example of males even when they would obviously benefit from doing so, new research has found.

A study by St Andrew’s University established that even when males demonstrate superior methods of obtaining food, females would rather mimic each other’s techniques because of an innate distrust of the opposite sex.

The behaviour, which the researchers said echoes some human traits, is rooted in the tendency of male vervet monkeys to roam between groups.

This leads females to believe that males have poor local knowledge because they move around so much.

By contrast, male monkeys are happy to learn from whichever sex appears to be the more effective in a given situation, the study found.

Professor Whiten, of the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at St Andrews, said: “The explanation for the sex difference may be that for females the important thing is to maintain close bonds with the other females they spend their whole lives with in the same group.

“They may be less inclined to copy males, who are likely to have less reliable local knowledge.”