A new study has confirmed what many women already knew: men prefer food over sex.

The Australian study asked individuals to rank which everyday experiences give them the most pleasure.

The survey was conducted by Magnum Ice-cream and it polled almost 10,000 people across the country.

Males rated taste sensations as their top pleasure trigger, with physical arousal coming in fourth, reports The Courier Mail.

The results were reached through a 'pleasure quotient test'.

The test used a scale to determine the frequency and intensity to which individuals are stimulated by certain triggers.

The scale found men gained more pleasure from food, and life in general, more so than their female counterparts.

Private therapist and UniSA adjunct senior lecturer of psychology Dr David Haynes said: "Women are more into values as a whole and men are into bottom lines and logic -- but why that would give one more pleasure from food or from life in general -- I can't imagine."

"From a Freudian perspective, it would be viewed as a man's regression to childhood, and the boys are being babies, treated by their mothers/ wives."

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh