London, April 1: The widely held belief that men become more bad tempered as they age is a myth, new research suggests. It?s women who stay angry, while men calm down.

The study by Jane Barnett, a PhD psychologist at Middlesex University, showed that women?s levels of anger were maintained through their lives and that the image of grumpy old men might be the exception rather than the rule.

Her study showed that men and women reported similar levels of anger when they were young. But by the time they were in their 30s women were more easily angered, which stayed constant as they aged.

Men became less angry as time went by.