What is “Male Idiot Theory”?
A scientific study supports the idea that men are, well, idiots. What is less clear is why.
I have witnessed male friends do many stupid things. Snorting chilli powder. Drinking a glass full of poolwater (and then vomiting all afternoon). Shaving off one eyebrow (the weekend before a big job interview). Having a chilli eating competition. Jumping over a fire (which, inevitably, ended up becoming jumping in to a fire). All of these feats were done as dares, or just randomly, out of nowhere, as some strange competition that cropped up between friends.
Scientists have a name for this: the “Male Idiot Theory.” In a tongue-in-cheek, but scientifically rigorous, article published in the prestigious British Medical Journal in 2014, researchers led by Ben Lendrem showed that men are more likely than women to engage in high-risk activities for which the payoff is negligible, or non-existent.
Evidence for this was found by examining the winners of the Darwin awards, prizes that are handed out at random times for people who have died (or sterilised themselves) through a very stupid activity. “The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it in a spectacular manner!” writes the website, cheerily.
