It's a well-worn, tired old cliché that men are messier than women. And that's because it's (usually) totally true – socks everywhere, pubes on the loo seat, teabags in the kitchen: they just don't seem to notice this (gross) stuff.
But before you go blaming him for being dysfunctional, we're here to tell you it really is just a guy thing – and science has finally proved it.
In her new book, Why Men Like Straight Lines and Women Like Polka Dots, psychology author Gloria Moss explains why his douche-baggery isn't down to "laziness, or unwillingness to help in the home."
Nope: apparently, women and men have different 'field dependence.'
In English, that means if a set of coloured cushions aren't arranged in an eye-pleasing way, we'll notice it and find it jarring. Meanwhile, men see objects out of context from their environment – which means he'll see the cushions individually and not notice they just don't look right.
A man's visual landscape isn't the same as ours – so, while it might seem unbelievable, he genuinely doesn't notice his socks all over the floor. He's not just pretending not to see them so you have to sort them out. No, really.
As Gloria points out in her book,
"If men are more able to disassociate objects from their surroundings, if they prefer straight lines to rounded ones, and if women have better peripheral visions and better colour discrimination, no wonder decorating a home can be a minefield."
She gives the example of a friend who tidied her boyfriend's kitchen, putting away the heaps of junk he'd accumulated on every surface (including a dirty plate languishing under a newspaper with last week's date on it…). When it came to the big reveal, he noticed there was more room, but couldn't put his finger on why...
And if you've ever argued with a man over the décor of a room, you're probably not the first or the last. Men like to define a room by what it will do, whereas women are more likely to define it by how it looks.
So how does all this help us? Well, it gives him a fairly annoying excuse to be messy – "science says it's OK" is hard to argue against. But it also means that when it comes to decorating, he won't notice if you go ahead and buy that lamp he hates. Win.
"These differences have evolved over the 99% of human history, in which men and women have been 'Hunters' and 'Gatherers'," Gloria tells Cosmo. "So men's greater field independence and 3D vision helps them bring home the bacon.
"On the other hand, women's role as gatherers, managers of the community and designers of homes and everything in them meant that they needed excellent close-up and colour vision (to be able to tell ripe from unripe berries and mood changes in infants and adults), as well as incredible responsiveness to round shapes.
"So the bawling baby becomes an object of adoration and the fourth colour pigment that up to 50% of women have – adding hundreds of millions more colours to their vision – make it easier to pick the best berries and nip a fever in the bud."
Women are responsible for 83% of all purchases – buying the lion's share of food, medicine, furniture, holidays, cars and even computers – which means there's a lot to be said for having more of us in boardrooms, marketing suites and design studios.
Perhaps putting up with the messy towels and socks is a small price to pay for having way better taste...
Why Men Like Straight Lines and Women Like Polka Dots (£12.99, Psyche Books) by Gloria Moss is out now.
