Feminists have striven for decades to emancipate women sexually, but when it comes to casual promiscuity, the female of the species is still more straight-laced than the male. And evolution is to blame.

Women are evolutionary programmed to regret one night stands, while men have evolved to regret not having more of them, a study suggests.

“Women regret that they agree to a one-night stand more often than men. Men regret passing up the chance more than women,” says Prof Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s (NTNU) department of psychology.

The study asked 263 Norwegians aged between 19 and 37 years old how they felt about recent one night stands.