Stupid deaths among men may be more likely because men take more risks that can be categorized as “idiotic,” a new study found.
LiveScience said the study, published in a “light-hearted” Christmas edition of BMJ, a medical journal, examined Darwin Award recipients to make its determination.
Darwin Awards are given annually to people who die (or nearly die) in “an extraordinarily idiotic manner,” LiveScience said. The award website is blunt: “
The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it.”
To make their determination, researchers pulled from Darwin stories that have been confirmed by the group. LiveScience said they were looking to examine what they call “male idiot theory,” or MIT, which basically considers whether men take higher risks that extend to being idiotic risks.
They looked at 318 cases, of which 36 involved women, LiveScience said.
What they found was that “men are idiots, and idiots do stupid things,” LiveScience quoted the researchers.
“The theory could also explain some of the gender gap previous studies have found in risk-seeking behaviors, emergency department visits and mortality, the researchers said. Men are more likely than women to be admitted to an emergency department after accidental injuries or with a sport injury, and they are more likely to die in traffic accidents,” LiveScience wrote.
In the BMJ article about the study, researchers said their criteria for the study included:
• “The candidate must be eliminated from the gene pool
• The candidate must show an astounding misapplication of common sense
• The event must be verified
• The candidate must be capable of sound judgment
• The candidate must be the cause of his or her own demise.”
The researchers admitted that there are limits to the study because it’s possible not as many idiotic decisions by women are reported, in addition to other issues.
“Despite these limitations there can be little doubt that Darwin Award winners seem to make little or no real assessment of the risk or attempt at risk management. They just do it anyway,” the researchers wrote.
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