Apologies if this fundamental topic has been covered before but…
Why do men get an overpowering urge to spit when looking down from a great height?
This reaction doesn’t seem to serve any useful purpose but every guy I know does it, even if we would never dream of spitting elsewhere.
Any ladies out there get the same urge?
It’s to show that you have no fear of heights - that, in fact, you have contempt of heights. You spit in the face of heights!
Hmm… I don’t have the urge to spit, maybe it is a cultural thing. I would guess that it has something to do with the urge to throw things off heights, and the convenience of your mouth.
I believe it is directly related to intelligence. An idiot is more inclined to such asinine behavior whereas someone with an IQ of above 100 would appreciate the view. Same goes for throwing pennies to see if they’ll dent the sidewalk.
I was worried that it would turn out to be a “just me” situation, but, as I said, I know a lot of people who get the same urge so maybe it is cultural (Western Europe).
The IQ comment is way off, I’m well clear of the 100 mark thank you, maybe my saliva glands just don’t agree.
Survival of the fittest. Before there were eyeglasses many humans could not see more than 5 feet away from them. So the audio signal backup system helps sight impaired homo sapiens judge height.
Simple.
Whatever the reason, I always spit unless I can see people below. And if it’s a very high place in nature like a gorge or a waterfall or that sort of thing, I’ll be throwing a rock, too.
I think there’s something primal in it. Why else would Letterman get so much action out of throwing stuff off a building? It’s funny and even thrilling to see stuff break into pieces, especially useful stuff like TV’s, pinball machines, computers, pianos.
Man the Destroyer?
Man The Rainmaker?
fear of heights.
even with good eyesight it helps to throw something down to judge the height, the time for whatever you throw to hit bottom might be the time you spend screaming on the way down…
i guess spit is simply convenient on hand/mouth/whatever.
Spit? Spit? I’d die of happiness if the guys I knew just spit off of high things.
I never spit, but I sure do think of how fun it would be to throw TVs, appliances, etc. over the edge.
And definitely if its a cliff, you just HAVE to throw a rock over 
It’s because when they read Celine, they mistranslated and chose to spit instread of piss.