I came across this wonderfully connotation-free term upon watching a clip from popular British comedy panel show, QI. The clip in question can be found here (unfortunately, I could only find a Facebook video link).

The basic premise of 'Male Idiot Theory' is that 'males are more prone to risk-taking'. From the description in the video, note how it assigns individual responsibility to men who engage in risky behaviour (i.e. risk-taking is considered possibly 'inherent'). While the term apparently has a tongue-in-cheek origin, it has been legitimised by academic writers who apparently have a penchant towards negatively charged terms that describe male behavioural patterns. Surprisingly, Sandi Toksvig is quite even-handed here and brings up the potential social conditioning factors. Sadly, Sally Philips quickly turns the discussion onto the idea that the premise is actually offensive towards women. So, while men are 'idiots' for engaging in risky behaviour, women are victims(!) for not being encouraged to be similarly risky, which would then, presumably, be empowering. The idea is even invoked to lazily explain away why so many more men are victims of workplace fatalities.

Towards the end of the video, they parrot the tired trope of women being inherently better leaders - ignoring the sheer complexity and conflating factors involved in the pandemic response of different countries.

Note that risk-taking is not even a bad thing per se; many men who have been dismissed as fools for getting themselves killed would have been lauded as heroes if their stunts succeeded. There is such a strong incentive for men to take risks, yet here they are blamed for it in yet another example of 'hyperagency'. Could you imagine the hate someone might get for labelling any general pattern of behaviour more strongly associated with women as 'idiotic'?