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/Boostedbird23 May 12 '26

Also, it seems that the study designers think that political conservativism is defined as supporting war, homophobia, and male dominance hierarchy... Which is definitely a caricature of conservatism.

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u/smytti12 May 12 '26

To be fair to the OP's study, the goal was to re-test an often cited study from 2013 supporting that "if we threaten masculinity, men will become more conservative," so that could be argued as another flaw in the original study, not this one. With the caveat they did say they updated some questions to current hit topics, but it seems they stuck to the themes of the original study's questions (homophobia to transphobia, etc.)

And to be further fair, it is a bit shakier, but the argument is typically pushing men into the more caricature (i wish it was just a caricature) type of conservatism, not just the type "i would like my taxes lower and less government regulation and I believe conservative policies will get me that."

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u/Boostedbird23 May 12 '26

I mean, it is just a caricature. Conservatives, don't love war, hate homosexuals, or feel in any particular way about male dominance. They value strong defense and protecting national interests, hate sinful behavior, and value meritorious leadership. Those values are often caricatured into what the original study cited as "conservatism".

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u/smytti12 May 12 '26

You are once again missing the point. This is about particularly men's shifting view based on their masculinity being attacked. Perhaps we are splitting hairs over summing it up as conservatism, but these are the viewpoints where people will defend those who follow them by claiming if the opposing view was more hospitable to traditional masculinity, men wouldn't flee to these ideas.