Boys will be boys. Or will they? If you're chatting on the Internet, there's a good chance the answer is "no".

A study of more than 400 US and Australian participants in role-playing games and other interactive online features found 40 per cent had had cyber-sex changes - feigning an opposite sex persona at some point.

But researchers at the University of Washington and Curtin University of Technology in Australia who conducted the study found role-playing games with fictional characters yielded the most gender bending, which the study deemed experimental and temporary.