We've been saying it for years but researchers have now found that men are much more foolish than women.
A 20-year review of The Darwin Awards, an annual review of the most foolish way people have died, found that 282 were won by males (88.7 per cent) and just 36 by females.
According to
The Telegraph, the researchers say it is puzzling that men are willing to take such unnecessary risks and do it simply as a rite of passage, in pursuit of male social esteem or solely in exchange for "bragging rights".
Candidates nominated for the awards include a man who stole a life home by hitching a shopping trolley to the back of a train, only to be dragged two miles to his death before it was able to stop.
There was also a terrorist who unthinkingly opened his own letter bomb on its return after he posted it with insufficient stamps and a man who shot himself in the head with a 'spy pen' weapon to show his friend it was real.
The researchers admitted the study has limitations because women may be more likely to nominate men for a Darwin Award, or the sex difference may reflect differences in alcohol use between men and women.
"Despite these limitations there can be little doubt Darwin Award winners seem to make little or no real assessment of the risk or attempt at risk management. They just do it anyway. In some cases, the intelligence of the award winner may be questioned," said Dr Dennis Lendrem of the University of Newcastle.
