The study finds many students and undergraduates seem to think of mathematicians as old, white, middle-class men who are obsessed with their subject, lack social skills and have no personal life outside the science.

The student's views of math itself included narrow and inaccurate images that are often limited to numbers and basic arithmetic, the study says. Albert Einstein and John Nash were labeled as not normal, lacking social skills and being obsessive toward mathematics, the study says.

"Given the narrow, negative cliches associated with maths and mathematicians, it is hardly surprising that relatively few young people want to continue with the subject," study leader Heather Mendick of London Metropolitan University says in a statement. "A substantial majority of both year 11 and university students saw math as little more than numbers and mathematicians as old, white, middle-class men."

However, some mathematics undergraduates -- particularly males -- gave positive value to geek status, even though several went to considerable lengths to claim their own normality.