Teaching girls about the use of lasers in cosmetic surgery, or how to order clothes online, encourages them to study science subjects, research suggests.

Girls are more interested in studying subjects like physics or information technology if the topics are presented in a female-friendly way, according to a study published online in the British Journal of Educational Psycho-logy.

The study, by Sylvie Kerger at the University of Luxembourg, examined whether making science more relevant to girls encouraged them to take up the subject.

There have been increasing concerns that fewer students are taking science- and maths-based subjects, which are important to a nation’s economy.

Girls tend to have less interest in these subjects, the research notes, despite performing as well as boys in them.

The study presented 134 boys and 160 girls aged 14 with the scenario that they were visiting a new school and could select their subjects, each of which has different topics.

The students were asked to rate their interest in each topic on a scale of one to five. They were not told which of four scientific disciplines (biology, physics, IT and statistics) each topic related to.

Some of the topics were “female-friendly ”, such as “learn how a laser is used in cosmetic surgery”, “learn how to order clothes on the internet” and “calculate the probability of a miscarriage”.

Others were “masculine”, such as “calculate the probability of a car accident”, “learn how to write computer software” and “learn how much force a rocket needs to take off ”.

The findings showed that girls had a significantly higher interest in IT, statistics and physics when the topics were presented in a “female-friendly” way.

But presenting topics in this way led to a decrease in boys’ interest, the study found.

Neither girls ’ nor boys ’ interest in biology was significantly affected by presenting topics in a certain way.