Totally agree with your critique of 'dunking' in favor of 'digging'.

But I question whether 'dunk' culture is indeed driven by a decline in the humanities over STEM. To me it seems like the opposite would be true.

Humanities are all about stirring human emotions - which is also what dunking is about. Whereas STEM is all about recognizing and understanding logical and natural patterns.

When one person's work is better than someone else's in STEM, the facts are more likely to speak for themselves - so there is often less need for dunking.

But in the humanities, the value of one's work often requires recognition and praise from an audience - and so finding ways to manipulate your audiences' reactions (such as by dunking) becomes more important. It's like how sitcoms include a laugh track so that viewers know what's supposed to be funny.

So to me, it seems intuitive that STEM may actually be an antidote to 'dunk' culture, while the humanities are its primary fuel.

And if we are searching for a reason why dunk culture has gained prominence in the last decade or so, I think our answer lies in the prevalence of twitter and social media - not in the rise of STEM.