Man vs Bear debate shows how bad the average person is at understanding probability, amirite?

Best I can do is Rowan Atkinson

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

This is an absolute win

by CheesecakeNew 2 weeks ago

How many bears can Bear Grylls grill if Bear Grylls could grill bears?

by Leliamann 2 weeks ago

Ever cross paths with a stranger in the woods? It is unsettling

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

You're walking in the woods. There's no one around and your phone is dead. Out of the corner of your eye you spot him ... Shia LaBeouf

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Actual cannibal Shia Labeouf?

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Glorious

by Konopelskirosco 2 weeks ago

‘Quiet, quiet' 😉

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

He drops down to all fours

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Fighting a bear.

by Ok-Willingness7458 2 weeks ago

we stan Rob Cantor in this house

by Loose_Seesaw_3465 2 weeks ago

Oh the awkwardness when one person brings their Pickleball paddle, and the other one brings a shovel.

by mohrisabella 2 weeks ago

Nice. Paddle shovel net tarp balls quicklime. It's just common sense!

by mohrisabella 2 weeks ago

Sounds like youve never been hiking or camping because that's just 100% normal

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

And how did it feel when you crossed paths with a bear in the woods?

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Ever cross paths with a stranger in the woods? It is unsettling Quite often actually and it is always friendly encounter.

by Extension-Title-1014 2 weeks ago

probably moreso for them since I hike naked

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Why is it unsettling? I've run across hundreds of strangers in the wood when I hike. We say hello and keep hiking.

by justicedaniel 2 weeks ago

Ever cross paths with a bear in the woods? It's more than just unsettling.

by Adept_Ad 2 weeks ago

Ever cross paths with a bear in the woods? Totally chill

by Jolly_Prompt647 2 weeks ago

In Norway, that's like the only place we'll greet each other... For context: Norwegians are reserved and give each other a lot of personal space. Some cultures might consider that unfriendly -- for us its a matter of respecting each other's privacy. However, when we're hiking (whether in the forests or the mountains) we'll greet everyone we see. There is the tree-line (how far up the mountainside trees can grow), but I also like to say that we have a "greeting-line": You have to be in the wilderness before its socially acceptable to greet strangers randomly.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

In the United States it's similar; on a city sidewalk or in a grocery store, we don't generally acknowledge or speak to random strangers (if we did, we'd never get anything else done because there are so many people), but if two hikers cross paths on a trail, they absolutely say hello in passing.

by kertzmannlavada 2 weeks ago

Everything is relative, but as someone who has lived in the USA: People in the US likes to chat with strangers a whole lot more than people in the Nordic countries do.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

I hike a lot and I always just hit them with a "ya making it". Basically just my form of asking if they're all good.

by Adellaglover 2 weeks ago

Weirdly i dont get why that's unsettling unless im somewhere i would not expect another soul to be. I have also been stalked by a grizzly… ask me which one was scarier.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

It isn't

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Many times and never once has it been unsettling, but then it's very common here in Norway while hiking.

by Optimal_Rise 2 weeks ago

I do all the time.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Right? It's a completely true and logical premise but debate lords can't help themselves. I'm a 6'4 big burly dude and I don't wanna see someone out alone in the woods, it's perfectly logical for a woman half my size to feel the same way.

by Comfortable-Waltz259 2 weeks ago

What about a bear? Would you like to be next to bear in the woods?

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Sounds like he is the bear in the woods

by Complete_Account 2 weeks ago

Maybe the real bear was the debate we had along the way

by sengerkennedy 2 weeks ago

Nobody in their right mind (other than hunters) wants to encounter a bear in the woods. I've encountered black bears in the wild and Alaskan brown bears on Kodiak Island. It's very scary because bears are very large and unpredictable.

by Grayce82 2 weeks ago

This must have a lot more to do with how your imagining the context of the meeting. If I'm lost in the woods finding a camp sight or hiker is my #1 priority where is your fear coming from. When I'm hiking avoiding bears is similarly a high priority

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Do people with this mindset just never go in the woods? You know there are plenty of great reasons to be there right? Lay off the horror movies and switch things up once in a while. Go camping. I'm plenty happy to meet someone in the woods, we've already got something in common.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

"Horror movies" True crime podcasts*

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

It's not the concept of being afraid of a random man. It's thinking that a wild bear would be a less threatening or scary encounter.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Yeah, I get the impression that how you answer the bear question depends a lot on your hobbies. If you hike once in awhile or just enjoy walks in the woods, you are probably not going to be afraid to bump into a random man because you do it 5 times each Tuesday and Thursday already. Which is why it seems so ridiculous to many people that you'd be more afraid of Jimmy the IT guy who likes to hike after work over Slew Foot the Grizzly Bear. Where as if you are a shut in urbanite with social anxiety who's never bumped into someone on a hiking trail, yeah, I can see how you'd have an irrational fear of a random man while wanting to cuddle up with supposed Mr. Teddy Bear.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

rapists do these activities too. if they see a victim that they could commit crimes on and no one would find out, they might just do it, ya know?

by Altenwerthabe 2 weeks ago

I guess you have never been hiking then or gone in a walk. You pass by people all the time on trails.

by Kpfannerstill 2 weeks ago

Not really related to the bear thing but I got attacked by a man in Highschool and kicking him in the balls didn't do literally anything.

by Meganeleffler 2 weeks ago

That's the problem. We're assuming the man in the woods is a creepy man you find in the woods. Not ANY man

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Depends on how deep you are in the woods. I have a short path near me and it's not uncommon to see other people walking on it. You just say hi and move on. If you're deep in the woods away from trails and find a guy living in a shack, that might be a different story.

by SeaSmoke7082 2 weeks ago

Ever cross paths with a grizzly bear in the woods? No, you haven't because you are reading this. You are suffering from survivorship bias.

by Sawaynlenora 2 weeks ago

Depends. Its very common here in Norway

by Sea-Education 2 weeks ago

I'm Norwegian. Crossing paths with a stranger in tje woods happens regulalry.

by Novel_Living4330 2 weeks ago

Well, I think "in the woods" kind of disqualifies polar bears at least

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Polar bears can now be found in Canada thanks to ice caps melting

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

but they were always in canada

by Dry-Olive7348 2 weeks ago

Now you can find them though - no more camouflage

by Small_Meet 2 weeks ago

But they were frozen until recently

by Ppacocha 2 weeks ago

Canada doesn't equal forest. They still stick to mostly icy places

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

They've always been in Canada. Canada goes all the way up to the north pole and they are frequently sighted in Churchill Manitoba which is pretty southern overall

by SchoolFit3924 2 weeks ago

ice caps melting That is a sweet Earth you might say... ROUND!

by Lexiedubuque 2 weeks ago

Fact: Bears eat beets.

by ckunze 2 weeks ago

Bears. Beats. Battlestar galactica

by muellermaxime 2 weeks ago

Bear McCreary composed the music for the 2004 Battlestar Galactica show. Or laid the beats, if you will, so I am going to assume this is what you are talking about.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Bears. Beats. Battlestar Galactica...

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

a panda

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

33% chance of that bear being a polar bear. I'm pretty sure there exist more than three types of bears on the world. What if you get a panda?

by SeaSmoke7082 2 weeks ago

Question. What kind of bear is best?

by rainadavis 2 weeks ago

I'd much rather deal with a random human wandering into my camp than a black bear. Black bear in camp is considering you as a food source.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Region counts too, I'm happy to hike around east coast black bears, they're like giant racoons, but western black bears are huge and aggressive.

by PopularPerspective94 2 weeks ago

Those chances are also off because there are more than three species of bear worldwide. Sloth bears, moon bears, sun bears, etc. If polar bears are on the table for the type of bear, so should all species be fair game

by Any_Leek9675 2 weeks ago

The only thing it shows is that most men are way too literal, which logically makes that debate stupid as hell, when in reality it's just a metaphor for how unsafe women feel being alone with an unpredictable strange man in public. So much so that they would prefer being stuck with an actual apex predator in the woods that is at least predictable no matter the survivability aspect or probabilities.

by Pacochalincoln 2 weeks ago

Some people unironically responded with "I understand the statistics", they did not understand the statistics. If you want to start diving into the statistics, you end up with some radical ideas such as how race, gender, age, political stance all may skew the statistics in good or bad ways.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Nuance hard, memes easy. Till we evolve not to prioritize saving mental effort lest we starve I don't think it'll change

by Walkerhumberto 2 weeks ago

All my experience with statistics leads me to the conclusion that conclusion that they're being used to lie to you

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

It's a poorly phrased hypothetical that addresses an important issues. Poorly phrased because the certainty of encountering 1x Bear or 1x Man sidelines into a statistics argument. A better question would be: "Where would you feel more safe, alone in Bear Country or alone at a Nightclub?". That said, it isn't actually about the Bear.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

A Bear in a lgbtqia+ nightclub would be quite safe on the other hand

by niacronin 2 weeks ago

It's an important discussion that is not well served by the specific metaphor. Agreed.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

I think the bear itself is actually a good metaphor. Consider the reasons why I, a man, would choose a man. Clearly not all bears are Maneaters, but when I reached a certain age, I started doing certain activities (going deeper into the woods) and my parents warned me of the dangers of bears. Bears are so dangerous that I have to be careful about what I wear (bear bells), how I secure my food and drink, and I may even have to carry a weapon on me for protection. If you're going to where there are bears, you shouldn't go alone. At a minimum, you need to tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back. I just think that the original question should have been worded such that you could encounter a bear, not that you would.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

The metaphor really falls apart the second someone says "what kind of bear" The second that is established we can go look at the statistics which undermines the real point of the discussion.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

I mean, if you're gonna dive deep into that analogy, would you feel safer now or if every man in 1km radius was replaced with a random type of bear?

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Well, I live near a highway, and bears are notoriously bad drivers, so no.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

A woman told me she'd be too afraid to go to brunch alone. Maybe not every fear is rational. Some could even be stoked by fear-mongering in media.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

It could just be hyperbole but a significant slice probably meant it.

by AdeptEmployment4427 2 weeks ago

So...death or...death

by Scared-Acadia6093 2 weeks ago

I'm just going to pretend that "Man vs Bear" is a question about which one would win in a fist fight, at which point the answers actually make sense.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

I will take all Koalas on

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Congrats, you have contracted syphilis.

by glockman 2 weeks ago

Really throws a wrench in the debate lol

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Koalas are marsupials, not bears. Disqualified!

by Odd-Pop7063 2 weeks ago

I've been honestly thinking that, I wasn't aware of this discussion 💀

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

I think it also shows how different people approach things. From what I've seen, the ones who answers bear approaches it from a "trust" standpoint. Like you can trust a bear to be a bear. While some approach it from a "safety" standpoint. Like yeah obviously an average wild animal is going to be more dangerous than an average man.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

I'd love to hear it rephrased as, "You're lost in the woods, you see a man in the distance but he doesn't see you. Do you call out to him or do you hide?" But maybe that's probably not exciting enough to trend on TikTok.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

A far more interesting and reasonable question though.

by Front_Tension 2 weeks ago

Add in things like race, how they are dressed, cleanliness, etc. and it'd get real interesting.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

"Black man or black bear?" would be a great way to accuse a ton of people of being racist.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

"White man or white bear(polar)?" Would be just as insightful

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Best answer I saw was "if the bear attacked me, people would believe me, and nobody would ask what I was wearing to provoke the bear"

by Anonymous 1 week ago

"She was probably eating beef jerky"

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I'd be asking what tf you were doing in bear country?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Tf does that even mean? Bear country is everywhere just about. If you live near any mountains, there are bears. Black bears have been spotted within 10 minutes of my house, and I live in a city

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Why is everyone assuming this video is real anyway. The person asking could have cherry-picked the clips where women answered bear from a much larger pool. It's how rage bait and manipulation of stats has always worked

by Anonymous 1 week ago

We must all fear ManBearPig!

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I'm serial.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

It's a rhetorical device, not an actual facts and logic debate.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Too advanced for the average social media user. There's no abstraction, only comparison.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I don't think it's about probably so much as knowing what you're dealing with. You KNOW a bear is dangerous, so you act accordingly. You don't know if the man is dangerous or not, and there's always a possibility that he is dangerous but will lure you into a false sense of security first. Also fear is often not based in logical probability, or else there'd be far more people afraid of cars

by Resident-Anywhere 1 week ago

Ah yes, women talking about how they feel so unsafe around men has to just be for attention. Cmon buddy.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Hmm. The person named nandy-bear wants more people to choose the bear. I'm on to you.

by Different_Buyer 1 week ago

Ah damnit you caught me. Had a net ready and everything.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Very relevant username mr bear, but really I'm talking about these tiktokers who are doing it for attention. Plus they do this to people who aren't the ones making them feel unsafe.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

In this case it literally is, though. Not personal attention, but the intention of the question and that answer is to draw attention to social problems.

by christiansenest 1 week ago

The point was to show that if a bear attacks a woman in the woods at least the woman will be believed. No one would ask what she was wearing or doing to provoke the bear. This isn't a logical question or a probability question. It's to illustrate that women feel safer with wild bears because if the worst were to happen, no one would put the woman's character into question.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Right. No one ever judged Timothy from Grizzlyman when he killed by a bear.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

But I still think he was a dumbass for doing it

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Well, it certainly wasn't because he was dressing like a slutty mountain man.

by Curious-Pudding 1 week ago

"It's not all men, but it is all women." Wow that really nails it on the head. So so true.

by Possible-Response 1 week ago

Bear would like to see you too.

by krystalpollich 1 week ago

Depends on the species of bear but generally they'll leave you alone, especially black bears. Brown bears aren't as scared of people and polar bears will straight up hunt you and eat you.

by Illustrious_Gate_634 1 week ago

Funnily enough i read somewhere that killing men eating bears actually kinda helps in reducing bear attacks on the long run. Bears are getting more and more afraid of humans as the generations pass and one hypothesis is that bears with less fear who are more likely to attack are more likely to be killed and thus the bears who are more afraid of humans get to reproduce and thus every generation of bears is in general more afraid of humans

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I sure wouldn't want to be on that other side of generally.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

What if the man was Bear Grylls?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I don't think the purpose of the poses question is to have a nuanced discussion but more to highlight women's fear of men in general. As an ASD person who very much sees thinks as black and white, my understanding of the "debate" is that when you see a bear you know what the bears intents are, look for food, protect it's cubs, guard it's territory. A man on the other hand is capable of lies and deception and you can never know their true intent.

by West_Cake 1 week ago

I feel like you made an interesting observation about known and unknown than took the exact opposite stance on it. Absent this question, people are far more afraid of the unknown. I've never seen a movie where the old guy says "oh yes, mankind's first and most powerful fear: things we already know about". Or "the devil you know is actually way worse because you know how bad it can be"

by ehaag 1 week ago

That's the thing OP is getting at, I think Tens upon tens of billions of human interactions every day and only an absolutely miniscule number of them involve any kind of violence. Although, I think they meant bad at statistics, not probability.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yea, but any basic statistics class will also point out that people are not rational actors with all sorts of biases. If women, by and large, feel safer with a predator that is statistically more likely to cause physical harm, it only shows the extreme weariness they have of men.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

It shows that terminally online people who've never been outdoors have no idea what they'd actually do. No-one in real life would ever pick the bear. That's not a thing humans do.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Ask a bear attack survivor which they would choose. There was a person whose face was half ripped off. The purpose of the question is to send a message that women are uncomfortable with men. It's designed poorly as practically nobody (from a statistic point of view) has been attacked or even encountered a bear. I myself live in a super rural area with black bears and hunt often in the fall. My entire life I've run into I think 3 bears?

by Illustrious_Gate_634 1 week ago

i think you are missing the point that most people have not had negative experiences with bears, because they seldom encounter bears. if you met bears as much as you met men your opinion would change.

by Helpful-Move 1 week ago

The fact that women would even have to ponder encountering bears vs strange men and sometimes/often will choose bears should wake you up to how scary men are perceived. This is not about you. It's not about me. It's about women feeling safe, and the average man makes women feel uneasy in a setting where she could be easily attacked.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

They are not missing the point. Their first sentence is that it's not about bears.

by Neil02 1 week ago

It also shows people underestimate danger of bears

by Anonymous 1 week ago

What's so different between associating all men with potential danger and racist talking points that do the same to minority groups? Its all perception right? I vehemently disagree with racists and I think most people are good.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

What it really really shows is that the gender and/or race wars will never ever end and the oligarchs will continue conquer the world.

by Several_Engine9351 1 week ago

Yup divide and rule

by Gislasonorie 1 week ago

I think every person who did not get the man vs bear thing, owns a gun. You know. For protection against the crazies out there.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

The worst thing the bear can do is kill you

by Fabianblick 1 week ago

Man scary because maybe bad.

by Odd-Pop7063 1 week ago

I assume OP doesn't either. What probability numbers are you looking at OP, that make you smarter than everyone else?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Shows how few people have been hiking.

by wilkinsonmckenz 1 week ago

Hot Take: These videos depicting women choosing the bear are fake, and the women were paid to say this to create controversy for views.

by PossessionOk322 1 week ago

I sure hope so.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Leave this on tiktok

by Anonymous 1 week ago

The stories I have heard indicate that basically all animals, bears included, do not have an instinct to handle choking, and that people who have killed bear with their hands generally stuff their fist down the bears throat until they choke to death. Anyway if I were forced to fight a bear I guess I would do that. I'd probably lose the hand but there are enough stories that it sounds plausible.

by Cotygreenholt 1 week ago

I think more scary than that is it shows how little critical thinking people are doing especially online, I think the hypothetical is dumb and in some ways offensive (people wouldn't put up with someone saying "I'd rather be in the forest with a bear than a middle eastern person because the middle east has a lot of issues with terrorism, so statistically the middle eastern person could be a terrorist) a statement like that is inflammatory and has no real purpose, even if the point was "people in the middle east are suffering under terrorism" that valid point could be made without such a dumb hypothetical. I and others have made it pretty clear that we agree assault and abuse needs to be dealt with more seriously because it is a very serious and real issue but the hypothetical is dumb. a good chunk of responses are just "oh so you are defending rapists" "this is why women are scared of men" "u must be an incel" it honestly scares me more than anything though, I don't really mind if you disagree with my viewpoint, we can discuss it and if we dont agree that is fine, just maybe consider not jumping to calling peopel rapists for discussing things

by Anonymous 1 week ago

It's not even probability; it's demonstrating how stupid the average person is in a lot of areas. Even a small, adult black bear is 130lbs and they can easily hit 300lbs, with specimens having been recorded up to 600 lbs. The only situation in which I'd be reasonably certain I could handle a bear is if I had a powerful rifle, plenty of ammunition and a long range at which to fire.

by clair72 1 week ago

The whole thing is just 'Could you fight a grizzly?', but for women.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Anyone who picks bear deserves Darwin's award TBH.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yes, yes it is. Most debate on insecurity are. The man vs bear debate is no different from the Arab vs bear debate.

by Jasenshields 1 week ago

It's just misandry. There really isn't much to it.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Predatory animals often eat you alive. Having your organs eaten while you're still conscious is pretty bad I imagine.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I get the point people are trying to make about domestic violence needing more attention and focus…but they're making it with the silliest comparison possible.

by Organic-Highway-8893 1 week ago