While it's being believed that women are a lot stronger than their counterparts when it comes to bearing pain, a recent study claimed that men have an edge over women in this department.

It has been claimed by a team from Leeds Metropolitan University that men by their inherent image of being macho, tend to behave quite firm in excruciating situations as compared to women, who are believed to be quite vulnerable in such circumstances. This is by far the first such study which has thrown light on this aspect of human strength.

"Some ethnic groups are described as more stoic, while others are viewed as more free in expressing their pain behaviour. We did not detect differences in pain unpleasantness", said Pain scientist Dr Osama Tashani.

The study involving 200 British and Libyan volunteers claimed that men are traditionally projected as stoic, thereby reinforcing their inner belief that they are indeed a stronger sex than women.

For the study, published in the European Journal of Pain, recruited team was made to go through two pain processes- men were instructed to jab their hand in a 1cm-wide blunt tip, and they were asked to keep their hand above their head while a cuff was applied to restrict blood flow.