In a babyworld survey, travellers on a busy Underground line were asked: "If you saw a pregnant woman standing during a journey on the Underground, would you get up and give her your seat?"

The survey, reported in the London Evening Standard, found that those most likely to get to their feet for a mum-to-be are the under-25s and people over the age of 56.

The survey also found that blue collar workers are more likely to offer their seats than white collar workers.

One man commented that anyone who has children would offer their seat because only they know what it's really like, while a mother said: "People don't generally stand up for you when you're pregnant unless they have been pregnant themselves and know what it's like."

Several female passengers said they would offer their seat depending on "how pregnant the woman looked", while one young male said that, because he sometimes finds it difficult to tell if a woman is pregnant or not, he would never offer his seat for fear of embarrassment if he was wrong.

Other comments included "it would depend if I was tired or not", "not if I had heavy bags with me", "not if I had my baby with me" and one man didn't always think pregnant women would appreciate the gesture.

One middle-aged businessman said: "If they're in business and want to be equals they can stand with the rest of us."

Tim Halfhead, babyworld's general manager, said: "The survey results were something of a surprise. We expected the young to have the worst manners, but this simply hasn't been borne out.

"Middle-aged, white collar workers seem the least likely to give up their seats, which probably reflects a sort of 'etiquette fatigue' after years of using public transport."

• Read the full results of babyworld's underground survey

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