Six percent of Americans believe they would win fight against grizzly bear - study

Six percent of Americans think they could tackle a grizzly bear.
Six percent of Americans think they could tackle a grizzly bear. Photo credit: Getty Images

A data analytics company has asked Americans which animals they would win against in a fight, revealing that some genuinely believe they could take on a grizzly bear. 

In a survey, YouGov asked Americans if they thought they could triumph in battle against certain animals without any weapons.

The results showed that overall people aren't too confident in their fighting abilities. 

The animal most people believed they could take on was a rat, with 72 percent of respondents saying they believe they would win. The rat was followed by a house cat at 69 percent and a goose at 61 percent.  

While that's more than half confident they would beat these animals in an unarmed fight, 17 to 24 percent still feel like they would lose in a struggle with the rest unsure. 

Another animal Americans thought they had the strength to win against was a medium-sized dog at 49 percent, however, that's still less than half. 

Confidence falls dramatically as the dog increases in size with just 23 percent of Americans backing themselves to win against a large dog and 58 percent being sure they would lose. 

Six percent of Americans believe they would win fight against grizzly bear - study
Photo credit: Screenshot via YouGov

Despite the data showing most people aren't very sure of their fighting abilities, there is a small population of people who seem to be outrageously confident.

Six percent of those surveyed believe they would win in an unarmed fight against a grizzly bear while eight percent believed they could take down a gorilla, elephant and lion. 

Nine percent also believe they would win against a crocodile. 

YouGov says there was surprisingly no gender difference when it came to this "top tier" of opponents. It says answers like this are often down to "male overconfidence" but in this case, men and women are "about as likely" to think they could beat a grizzly bear, lion, gorilla or crocodile. 

Gender differences begin to show up when asked about wolves and kangaroos which 16-17 percent of men think they could beat compared to 9 to 11 percent of women. 

The survey was completed by 1224 US adults between April 12 to 13, 2021. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all US adults aged over 18.