Thursday, October 18, 2012

Spontaneous Male Aggression Towards Unicyclists

     All of the unicyclists noted that adult male onlookers responded with the same repetitious, snide remarks made aggressively as a "joke", of which most were based on the single wheel, e.g., "Do you know...", "Have you noticed...", "You have only...", "Have you lost a wheel?"
     By contrast, women did not make aggressively humorous remarks; their responses were warm, appreciative, and supportive, with a concern for safety.
     The male "joke" response with its repetitive content and irritating, offensive intent, was observed by male and female unicyclists in many parts of the world.
     Unicyclists observed that young children showed interest and curiosity, which they communicated to their parents, and noted a subsequent transition of this response toward physical and verbal aggression in older boys- but not girls- with stone throwing, spitting, obstruction, and sudden shouts of "Fall off!".....The repetitive nature of the male "joke" response , in particular the frequent reference to the number of wheels, was repeatedly confirmed.
     The universality of the response across different individuals, environments, and dates of observation suggests an endogenous mechanism, and the association with masculine development relates this to androgen....It is concluded that humor develops from aggression in males and is evolutionarily related to sexual selection.?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3284262/