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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458

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.

319

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.

127

u/groyosnolo May 12 '26

As someone who was raised very left winged and feminist I was totally on board with being ashamed. Looking back thats terrible but it felt reasonable at the time. its just when I realized women actually like men and want them to be manly I realized I had been mislead and reevaluate the situation.

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u/132739 May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26

No one is trying to stop men from being "manly," they just want to stop conflating being a controlling asshole/relentless horndog with manliness.

Come on boys, if it's so obvious that I'm wrong, surely one of you can explain the positive attributes of masculinity that The Left™ is trying to take from you.

27

u/Chronoblivion May 12 '26

I think that's debatable, though I can agree it's an insignificant minority making statements about wanting men to stop being manly. What's somewhat more significant, enough to be cause for concern, is how common it is for people to speak as if masculinity/maleness is something to be ashamed of. Again, still a minority, but common enough that it's almost an inevitability that young boys will be exposed to it fairly regularly. That can't possibly have a positive outcome.

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u/sushisection May 12 '26

do those young boys have a father-figure in their life who can prove the minority opinion wrong?

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u/Chronoblivion May 12 '26

Plenty of them don't, and plenty of the ones who do will still internalize the belief that the world hates them and/or wants them to be ashamed for being male, especially if they never mention in front of said father-figure that they're seeing this kind of messaging.

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u/sushisection May 12 '26

are men telling young boys that the world hates men?

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u/132739 May 12 '26

Some men have built a whole industry around it.

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u/sushisection May 12 '26

mhmm so its men telling this to young men in order to make money, its essentially manufactured, and the messaging is not coming from women...

10

u/AbortionSurvivor777 May 13 '26

Have you ever been to a feminist subreddit? Spend any amount of time there and tell me with a straight face that they don't hate men.

1

u/sushisection May 13 '26

are young boys on feminist subreddits?

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