We recently learned the majority of men would rather shave ten years off their lives than give up red meat, and now, we’re discovering 8% of men believe they could beat an honest to god lion in a fistfight.
As Boss Hunting wrote, most men have a mate who overestimates their fighting ability; that “overinflated confidence in this regard is by no means an unexplored phenomenon, especially when it comes to the male species.” But an actual living, breathing, sharp-toothed, sharp-clawed lion?
Have you not seen The Lion King, where Scar throws his own brother Mufasa off a cliff? Where Scar kicks firey hot embers into his own nephew’s eyes before they battle on a cliffside as fire rages below? Where Simba throws his own uncle off the edge of that very cliff? Or in The Lion King II where Zira slashes Kovu’s face?
The real-life evidence is right there — no human should feel confident taking on a lion…
And speaking of real-life evidence, these statistics aren’t unfounded, but actually came from YouGov, a market research and data analytics firm. Conducted in the US, it found that when it comes to rumbles in the jungle, some respondents had maybe a little too much faith in their combat skills.
In fact, in an unarmed fight, 14% of Americans believe they could take on a kangaroo (they’ve clearly never visited Australia); 12% think they could take on a wolf (have they not seen Twilight?); and 9% think they could take on a crocodile — we’re sorry, but there’s only one Steve Irwin.
And yes, a grand total of 8% of male Americans think they could take on a lion. Oh, and they think they could take on a gorilla. Most shockingly, 8% also believe they could take on an elephant. You know, those animals that can weigh between 2,000 and 6,000kgs.
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