Hooked on shopping? Blame it on your mom

"Human society puts a great deal of emphasis on female appearance and this will inevitably result in more clothes being purchased for girls than boys. Parents encourage the importance of clothes through leisure activities such as shopping and play that involves dressing up.

"While dads are taking their sons out for football matches, women are taking their little girls shopping and encouraging them to take an interest in fashion," Dr Karen J Pine of the University of Hertfordshire said.

The Professor of Developmental Psychology says that sales levels indicate that shopping is a behaviour which is learned, so it may be down to women`s mothers that they like to shop so much.

Figures have revealed that clothes for baby girls out-sell those for boys by a fifth. It emerged that by the age of four, girls have 20 per cent more clothes than boys of that age, the `Daily Mail` reported.

As mothers buy most of the clothes for their children, this suggests that they instinctively instill a much greater need for clothes in their daughters from a very young age. As a result, it`s likely women are brought up to love shopping through years of intense exposure to fashion and purchases.