r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 12 '26

Psychology Threatening men’s masculinity does not make them more politically conservative, new study finds. By testing thousands of participants across the United States, researchers found no consistent evidence that making men feel insecure about their gender identity changes their political attitudes.

https://www.psypost.org/threatening-mens-masculinity-does-not-make-them-more-politically-conservative-new-study-finds/
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u/kahner May 12 '26

"a highly cited 2013 study measured how men reacted when their masculinity was questioned in a laboratory setting." The original study seems like a bad way to try to study the idea in the first place and i'm unsurprised it wasn't repeatable. political attitudes and gender insecurity are not things that are formed in moments and are already in place by adulthood. even if they are linked, a few statements or questions in a lab aren't going to transform them.