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Men’s Stupid Deaths More Likely Than Women Due to of ‘Idiotic’ Risks, according to a 20 year study of the Darwin Awards.
The research was published in the British Medical Journal in an article called Darwin Awards: sex differences in idiotic behaviour. A two decade examination of the Darwin Awards – an annual review of cases where people died in exceptionally stupid ways – has found that males make up 90 per cent of the ‘winners’.
The awards, which were first distributed in 1994, reportedly draw inspiration from Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, which states that species develop characteristics by self-selectively weeding out members of the community with undesirable characteristics.
Researchers from Newcastle University reportedly decided to test the theory by examining sex differences in “idiotic risk-taking behavior” among the Darwin Award nominees over a 20-year span, according to First Post.
Worthy candidates reportedly include a man stealing a ride home by hitching a shopping trolley to the back of a train, only to be dragged two miles to his death before the train was able to stop. There was also reportedly a terrorist who posted a letter bomb with insufficient postage stamps and ended up opening his own letter.
Of the 332 Darwin Award nominations that were independently verified and confirmed by the Darwin Awards committee,14 were shared by male and female nominees, and of the 318 cases that were left 282 Darwin Awards were awarded to males and just 36 awards given to females.
“Males thus made up 88.7 percent of Darwin Award winners and this sex difference is highly statistically significant,” the authors noted.
The authors continued, “It is puzzling that males are willing to take such unnecessary risks – simply as a rite of passage, in pursuit of male social esteem, or solely in exchange for ‘bragging right.'”
Agencies/Canadajournal
