“Sex, Aggression, and Humour: Responses to Unicycling”, 2007 ():
Sam Shuster compares men and women’s responses to the sight of a unicyclist.
…The response to the unexpected and novel stimulus of seeing a unicyclist was surprisingly consistent even to the words and gestures used, and these varied with age, sex, and stage of sexual development. In males the response moved from curiosity in childhood, to physical and verbal aggression in older boys; this became more verbal as the boys matured into men and evolved into the concealed aggression of a repetitive humorous verbal put-down, which was lost with age. In contrast, the female response was praise and concern for safety. These findings suggest that humour develops from aggression in response to male hormones.
…Competing interests: None, apart from owning a bicycle as well as a unicycle.