Hopelessly lost on a country road, the man behind the wheel refuses to ask directions, grits his teeth and drives even faster into unknown territory. But while the reluctance of male drivers to accept any outside help certainly seems like pig-headedness, it may actually stem from a less macho cause: blind panic.
While women are more than happy to use all available resources to help them reach a goal, men will rigidly stick to their original "system" – such as a map or set of directions – even though it has clearly led them astray.
Being forced to confront the fact that their system does not work makes men flustered and usually results in them putting the pedal to the floor in a desperate bid to avoid the reality of the situation.
Tristan Gooley, an explorer and expert in "natural navigation", said "I think women have less comfort with and faith in a system ... men like systems so they stay within the system even if it isn't working all the way."
In the context of a car journey, men may refuse to ask directions because doing so would be tantamount to admitting that their system was not working. "If you admit a system doesn't work once, the fear creeps in that it doesn't work at all and so there is a panic. Men won't admit it, but that is my theory why men don't ask for directions."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/9548536/Men-refuse-to-ask-for-directions-out-of-blind-panic.html