In the opening scenes of 1964’sGoldfinger , James Bond is asked why he always carries a gun . His wry and astonishingly self - deprecating solution ? “ I have a slight inferiority complex . ”

It ’s a intimate stereotype . Guns , the pop idea says , are a stand - in for penises – and human race who own them areprobablyjust overcompensating for something . It ’s not only a trope in movies , either : it ferment upin Freud , in the headlines – even in supposedly rigorous “ scientific studies ” . There ’s just one problem : according to a new analysis out of the University of Texas at San Antonio Hill , it ’s entirely backwards .

“ Guns are clearly phallic symbols . shooter are distinctly associated with maleness , ” the authors compose . “ However [ … ] the psychosexual theory of gun possession systematically fails in its averment that men who have trouble with their phallus or are disgruntled with their phallus are especially likely to acquire gun as a means of recompense . ”

The results occur from analysis of data collected from more than 1,800 men in the 2023 Masculinity , Sexual Health , and Politics ( MSHAP ) survey , a national chance sample from across all 50 Department of State plus the District of Columbia .

“ The elementary purpose of the MSHAP survey is to empirically document the crossroad of masculinity , intimate health , and political science in the United States , ” the study excuse – it hide all sort of lifestyle interrogative sentence , from your feelings about your penis size , to your employment status , to genial health , to evenhow cool and overnice you are .

It also ask about triggerman ownership . And to be honest , the results were pretty much what you ’d expect : sometime man , US - born men , true men , and man who live in rural or Southern areas were more likely to own guns ; men with college degrees , who grade higher on “ social desirability , ” tended to own fewer guns .

But there was one surprisal – at least for anybody who bases their worldview on movies likeDeadpoolorDirty Harry . “ The odds of have a ordnance [ … ] arelowerfor men who aremoredissatisfied with the size of their member , ” the study cover . “ In fact , each one - unit increase in penis size dissatisfactionreducesthe odds of owning any gun by 11 pct [ … ] and the odds of have a military - style rifle by 20 per centum . ”

Now , we experience what you ’re think . We ’re just call for these bozo ’ word for it about how big their dicks are ? In a study about penis size dissatisfaction??Have we get wind nothing ?

Well , you ’re not incorrect . “ Although we control for societal oomph diagonal , our measurements of penis sizing are based on ego - reports , not direct measurements , ” Terrence Hill , a prof of sociology and demography and first author of the study , tell PsyPost . There are also restriction intrinsic to the written report figure : as a thwartwise - sectional field , it ca n’t draw any conclusions about causality , or how gun possession normal may transfer over time .

Indeed , finding some explanation for the results may prove hard – or even unsufferable . “ Because there is no theory for why men with bigger penises would be more likely to own guns , we do not believe that this association is real , ” Hill said . “ In other countersign , we conceive that this connexion is belike misbegot or due to factors that we failed to account for in our report . ”

But that does n’t mean Hill and his workfellow ca n’t suppose . “ For example , the association [ … ] could be due to the fact that human beings with higher level of testosterone tend to have bigger member and are more likely to engage in risk of exposure - taking conduct , ” he suggested .

“ In the future , we would wish to acquire funding to officially assess our testosterone hypothesis . We also have other projects in mind that prove other fill - for - grant supposal about gun . ”

The study is publish in theAmerican Journal of Men ’s Health .