London, Feb 2 (IANS): A new study reveals that men and women are far more similar than one thinks.

Men may be thought of as sex-driven and sports fans who rarely share their feelings, while women are considered neurotic gossipers who love to shop. But the new US study suggests that in reality men and women are more alike than most people realise, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Iowa State University came to this conclusion after analysing 100 personality characteristics reported by 12 million people.

Their study found an almost 80 per cent overlap between men and women for more than 75 per cent of the reported psychological characteristics analysed, including risk taking, stress and morality.

"This is important because it suggests that when it comes to most psychological attributes, we are relatively similar to one another as men and women," said Zlatan Krizan, an associate professor of psychology at ISU.

"This was true regardless of whether we looked at cognitive domains such as intelligence; social personality domains such as personality traits; or at well being such as satisfaction with life," added Krizan.

The similarities were also consistent regardless of age and over time.

The researchers did, however, find some attributes in which there was a significant gap between men and women. For instance, men were more aggressive and masculine, while women had a closer attachment to peers and were more sensitive to pain.