According to a survey, eight percent of Americans think they could beat a lion in a fight - unarmed. But there’s a fine line between having belief in your own capabilities and being downright deluded.
The study, which comes from YouGov America, pitted 34 animals (including humans) against each other to see which people think is the mightiest.
It’s thought that confidence is an attractive and important trait for a man to have. The way one carries themselves, acts, talks, and engages with others; confidence matters. Or pretending to be confident, at least.
But there’s a fine line between having belief in your own capabilities and being downright deluded.
Believing you can make a great lasagne: confident. That you could beat a lion in a fight? Deluded.
Yet, according to a new survey, 8 percent of men believe they could do just that.
The study, which comes from YouGov America, pitted 34 animals (including humans) against each other to see which people think is the mightiest.
A total of 1,224 US adults were included in the research.
Unsurprisingly, the elephant came out on top with a win rate of 74 percent.
But things started to get interesting when people were asked to rate their own chances against each.
According to the survey, eight percent of men and seven percent of women believe they could beat a lion in a fistfight.
When matched up against an elephant or gorilla, that stat rises to nine percent and eight percent respectively.
Up against a dog – no sweat. 60 percent of you would have no trouble putting them to sleep with a solid right hook.
What about a goose? No problem. 71 percent of the men surveyed would stick them on their backs, too.
Most Americans—72 percent—believe they could beat a rat in a fight, which despite the rodent's large teeth, could perhaps be feasible.
However, some foolhardy people still believe they stand a chance against some of the scariest animals in Animal Kingdom, such as the grizzly bear, and the crocodile.
Americans are not confident in their abilities to beat a grizzly bear in a fight. Only 6 percent believe that they could win.
Grizzly bears can stand at a height of up to 8 feet, and the males can weigh up to 1,700 pounds.
YouGov said:
There is effectively no gender difference when it comes to this top tier of opponents - men and women are about as (un)likely to think they could beat grizzlies, lions, gorillas and crocodiles in combat.
The differences start to emerge with wolves and kangaroos, which 16-17% of men think they could beat compared to 9-11% of women.
One in five men think they could beat a chimpanzee (22%) or king cobra (23%) in a fight, while only 8-12% of women feel the same way.
The gap is biggest when it comes to medium sized dogs (which 60% of men but only 39% of women think they could beat) and geese (71% vs 51%).
Respondents were asked to choose which of two animals they thought would win in a fight, having been shown a 'series of head-to-head match-ups'.
YouGov explains:
We showed people seven random pairings of animals from the list and asked them which of the two they thought would win in a fight.
Animals are ranked by their 'win percentage', that is, how often Americans thought that animal would win in a head-to-head matchup when it was one of the two animals shown.
Lions came out fairly well in the study, with a 68 percent win percentage - just behind hippos (69 percent), tigers (70 percent), grizzly bears (73 percent), rhinoceroses (74 percent), and the overall winners, elephants (74 percent).
However, there’s one animal the survey didn’t name that deserves a nod: the mosquito.
They may seem easy to squash, but the humble insect is responsible for more human deaths — hundreds of thousands — than any other animal, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Probably because, well, who could see them coming?
