A Scottish research suggests that being nice or being nasty is in your genes - particularly if you're a woman.

The study of almost 1,000 pairs of identical and non-identical twins, conducted by psychologist Gary Lewis and colleagues at Edinburgh University, has found that genetic factors appeared to affect how likely someone was to do charitable deeds or work hard in their job.

However, the experts also said the environment in which we live still plays a part in how nice we are, meaning we cannot just blame our genes if we''re feeling a bit nasty. Twins make good research subjects because, in the case of identical twins, they have the same genetic make-up.