On the front row of a fashion show: men’s eyes may wander, but women’s eyes are said to linger longer as they consider the likelihood of rivalry

Women’s bodies are of more visual interest to other women than they are to their male counterparts, according to a scientific study.

While men instinctively look at the eyes to detect any immediate threat, women will check out a naked female’s breasts, hips and body to assess a possible rival, according to researchers at Bristol University.

Special tracking software was used to observe precisely where the genders were looking in a study of 86 couples aged 25 to 56. They were shown pictures of a wide variety of objects but it was in response to images of other people that their eye movements differed most markedly. The differences were significant enough reliably to reveal the looker’s gender.

Heterosexual couples shown a photograph or a painting