Women 'likelier than men to bitch about friends behind their backs'

Blokes fared slightly better - helping out elderly with heavy shopping bags and giving change to the homeless.u00a0Original Volunteers, the UK''s largest independent overseas volunteering organisation, questioned 2,000 people of both sexes on their attitudes and behaviour towards selfless acts.

A third have lied in order to improve their chances at work and four in 10 haven''t got hold of members of their family for ''too long''.u00a0Men were also far from being squeaky clean - a quarter said they haven''t given someone cash when they were in desperate need of it and one in five purposefully try to dodge buying rounds in the pub.

The same number has pushed into a queue and one in six have splashed someone in their car.u00a0And while they''re happy to volunteer at a sporting event, men are less likely to help at fundraisers or go abroad for projects.

Incredibly, half of people said they committed two or more selfish acts every day.u00a0"It''s unfortunate to see a large portion of the nation considers themselves selfish. We''re all guilty of the occasional selfish act but this just goes to show how precious we''ve become over our own time," said Programme Director Caroline Revell.u00a0

"It appears that giving up your time is the ultimate sacrifice, more so than dodging charity collectors in the street, bad-mouthing someone for a personal gain or forgetting a friend or relative''s birthday," she added.