London - Men are so reluctant to ask for directions that they will clock up an unnecessary 900 miles (about 1 400km) – the distance from Land’s End to John O’Groats – over a lifetime, researchers say.
On realising they are lost, only six percent check a map or ask for help to avoid extra mileage, a survey showed.
And 14 percent are so stubborn that they soldier on until they find an alternative route, rather than admit they are wrong.
Of the nearly 1 000 respondents, 94 percent said women were generally better at navigation even though men are often reluctant to admit it. One in three said they react angrily to a partner’s bad sense of direction which “typically leads to an argument”.
More than half of the men surveyed estimated that their poor navigation adds up to 20 minutes to journeys on foot.
TrekAce, makers of a navigational aid for walkers, which carried out the poll, found the average British man will needlessly travel an additional 1.5 miles a month before correcting a wrong turn – 900 miles over 50 years.
A spokesperson for the firm said: “It’s incredible to think that we waste so much of our precious time getting lost. The results of this survey reinforce that men are not the best navigators. But it also shows the extreme lengths that men are going to, to avoid asking for directions.”
Daily Mail