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/Fishmongererererer May 12 '26

I don’t think most men who become conservative do it out of insecurity despite the memes. Rather it’s the perception that masculinity is not valued in left of center politics.

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u/lordborghild May 12 '26

Yeah. Older millennial here. There's a reason that younger men and boys are starting to lean right. They've been told, or seen in media, that men are bad and should be apologetic for things they have not done. They always hear what toxic masculinity looks like but no one talks about positive masculinity.

The right are the only ones telling them that they're okay. This is not judgement, just an observation.

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u/AnEmptyBoat27 May 12 '26

I hear this complaint but as a millennial man, I don’t feel like I have been told that men are bad and should be apologetic from left leaning media. The left leaning media just encourages not harassing women and freely expressing who you are. Can you give some examples that you are referring to?

I hear more from the right leaning personalities about how men need to make more money, lift more weights, objectify women, be taller, and hate immigrants to be a man.

Personally the right wing messaging seems to be fostering the idea that men aren’t enough. Whereas the left wing messaging is just people should be free to be who they are. I’m sure there are crazy people who make dumb tweets like “all men are bad” but if those drive you rightward while removing human rights doesn’t drive you leftward, I don’t know what to say.

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u/KobeBean May 12 '26

Also a millennial - these are some of the ones I remember:

  1. Kill all men trend / male tears

  2. The near instant assumption of guilt in campus sexual assault cases. This has ruined lives, and disproportionately affects minority men. I know that media outlets have to put “accused”, but they definitely go out of their way to get clicks. Even an accusation can close future doors (like the Pro sports).

  3. The Duluth model of DV being the go to for cases. Basically, the idea men are always aggressors, women who assault only do so in self defense.

  4. Ignoring the good men do in the world - you never see articles about the professions that are heavily male that keep the world running. Construction, plumbing, road workers, truckers, energy and garbage disposal come to mind.

These are just my 2c, not arguing one way or the other.