Actually, the headline on Science Daily's list is Study supports the theory that men are idiots, but my headline is close enough.
UPDATE: Because there appears to be some confusion about whether or not this is some kind of joke, the article is open access, here's the [pdf] link:
The Darwin Awards: sex differences in idiotic behaviour
Note that a student at the King Edward VI School, both the director and project manager of the Institute of Cellular Medicine at Newcastle University, as well as an orthopedic trauma surgeon at the Major Trauma Centre, Royal Victoria Infirmary are included as authors. It doesn't look like actual snark. These authors are all men, by the way...
Now, I am not all that convinced that it's some kind of scientific-like "theory" in the first place, given that at least half the human race has known for a fact that men are idiots, arising right around the historical period in human evolution that words meaning "idiot" were first coined. To describe the idiotic behaviors of men, for the most part. But no, this study published in the British Medical Journal is not a joke. Rather, as the report states, are "actually based on an analyses of sex differences in idiotic behavior."
Researchers in northeastern England decided to test the MIT [Male Idiot Theory] by examining Darwin Award winners over the past 20 years. To qualify as a Darwin Award recipient, nominees must improve the human gene pool by eliminating themselves from the running through the use of "astonishingly stupid methods." Like the guy who tried to hitch a ride home by tying a shopping cart to the back of a train, or the terrorist who sent a letter bomb with insufficient postage, who then stupidly opened the damned thing when it was returned.
332 of the 413 Darwin Award nominations were independently confirmed by committee. Of those, 14 were shared by male and female nominees engaging in the same incident of idiotic behavior. This led to 318 individual acts of idiocy for the researchers to examine. Of the 318, 282 award winners were male while just 36 were given to females. Men account for just short of 90% of Darwin Award winners.
The researchers believe that the Male Idiot Theory deserves further investigation, and plan to follow up with observational field studies in a "semi-naturalistic Christmas party setting." So ladies, keep your eyes peeled for suspiciously observant wallflowers nobody seems to know at the office Christmas party, and be prepared to toss a few suggestions at the Most Likely Idiots (we all know who THEY are, right?) so the researchers can observe real-time the just how easily men can be convinced to engage in stupid behaviors. It's a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone (so to speak) - get rid of the idiot middle management wannabe AND do your part to further the cause of scientific knowledge!*
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* Yeah, all those so-serious researchers could have just asked a random sampling of people on the street if men are idiots, would have reached the same conclusions. But that's too easy, and doesn't generate much in the way of research funding.
§;o)