But rather than assume women are inefficient in practice, he says it could be more likely that women don’t see professional Scrabble as worth their time.

He tells the newspaper: “There’s not a lot of money in Scrabble; it’s not like chess.

“So why would you even want to be the best Scrabble player in the world? You could argue it doesn’t make sense.”

He added: “Just because there is a huge gender difference, it doesn’t mean there is a huge ability gap.”

Given the study focuses on a relatively small sample of participants, who self-reported on how they partook in professional tournaments from 2004 and 2008, it’s difficult to draw the conclusion that men are simply better at board games – the line some media outlets have taken (leading to the usual slew of Twitter users claiming victory over feminism). So don’t let anything put you off your annual Boxing Day showdown.

Images: iStock

Science claims this is why your male friends are better at Scrabble than you