New paper in the British Medical Journal says men are more likely to behave idiotically, put themselves at risk

Dec 12, 2014 08:06 GMT  ·  By

A study published in the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal brings evidence in support of the so-called Male Idiot Theory. Otherwise put, this study claims to prove that men are, well, more idiotic than women are.

Before you dismiss this paper as pure mumbo-jumbo and click off this page, which some of you are probably thinking about doing right about now, it must be said that this investigation was not carried out by armchair scientists.

This study that supposedly confirms the Male Idiot Theory, which, by the way, is an actual thing, is authored by real specialists now working with research facilities in northeast England.

These guys and gals base their claim that men are more likely to behave idiotically on data obtained while surveying the outcome of several Darwin Awards ceremonies.

For those unaware, the Darwin Awards honor those said to have contributed to human evolution by doing mind-bogglingly stupid things that ultimately took them out of the gene pool either via death or via sterilization.

True, the Darwin Awards are a tongue-in-cheek sort of ceremony. Still, it looks like they can contribute to the advance of science by helping researchers better understand the differences between men and women.

How men are the more idiotic of the bunch

As part of this investigation into which of the two genders is the more idiotic one, scientists looked at the winners nominees of the Darwin Awards between the years 1995 and 2014 and counted how many of them were men and how many were women.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, the researchers explain that, all throughout the 20 years that this study focused on, a total of 413 people were nominated for the Darwin Awards. However, the Darwin Awards Committee only confirmed the stories of 332 of the individuals.

Of these guys and gals left in the game, 14 were couples that shared a story and were removed from the investigation. Eventually, the scientists settled on 318 cases of idiotic people doing mind-blowingly idiotic things to study and catalog, Phys Org explains.

The researchers say that males were the protagonists of as many as 282 (88.7%) of these 318 tales of idiocy. Women, on the other hand, were center stage in just 36 (11.3%) of them. Hence, it is now argued that it is men that are more likely to do stupid things and put themselves in danger.

“Males are more likely to be admitted to an emergency department after accidental injuries, more likely to be admitted with a sporting injury, and more likely to be in a road traffic collision with a higher mortality rate,” the researchers say.

“According to 'male idiot theory' (MIT) many of the differences in risk seeking behavior, emergency department admissions, and mortality may be explained by the observation that men are idiots and idiots do stupid things,” they add.

Actual stories in support of the Male Idiot Theory

Just for fun, here are two of the stories that the specialists behind this study argue are proof enough that men are more idiotic than women are. Mind you, these stories are somewhat funny but pretty macabre as well, so you should probably skip them if you are easily upset.

Now, the first is about a man who, looking to get home faster, decided to attach a shopping trolley to the back of a train, jump in and wait for the conductor to take him to his destination. Needless to say, things didn't go quite as planned. Long story short, the train dragged the man to his death.

The other story is about a terrorist who one day decided to send a letter bomb but who failed to stick enough postage stamps on it. The result was that the letter was sent back to his home. For some reason, the man saw fit to open the letter. That's right, this guy blew himself up by mistake.

Interestingly enough, the researchers now claiming that the Male Idiot Theory is not pure nonsense say that they plan to further investigate the matter at hand in the years to come, maybe even carry out field observations.

Study finds evidence men are more idiotic than women (5 Images)

Researchers claim to have proven the Male Idiot Theory
They base their claim on the outcome of several Darwin Awards ceremoniesApparently, men are more likely to take stupid risks
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