summary: A new study finds that adolescent boys react aggressively to perceived threats to their masculinity, especially in gender-normative environments.
The researchers found that boys who feel social pressure to be masculine are more likely to exhibit aggression, a behavior that takes root during adolescence and highlights the impact that social pressure has on gender conformity.
Findings call for addressing restrictive norms to prevent harmful behaviors associated with threatened masculinity.
Key Facts:
- Social pressure: Boys who are socially pressured to be masculine show greater aggression when their masculinity is threatened.
- Effects on adolescence: Masculinity threat aggression is seen in mid-to-late adolescent boys.
- Parental Influence: Boys whose parents endorse stereotypical gender beliefs are more likely to exhibit aggression.
sauce: New York University
We’ve long known that some men become aggressive when they feel their masculinity is threatened, but when and why does this behavior emerge during development?
Adolescent boys may respond aggressively when they feel their masculinity is threatened, especially those who grow up in environments with strict gender stereotypes, according to a new study by a team of psychology researchers.
The findings reported in the journal Developmental Sciencehighlights the impact of societal pressure on many boys to conform to stereotypical masculinity.
“We know that not all men respond aggressively to threats to their masculinity, and previous research has shown that it is primarily men who are socially pressured to conform to stereotypical masculinity who are most likely to respond aggressively to such threats,” said Adam Stanaland, a postdoctoral researcher at New York University and lead author of the study.
“There is now evidence that certain adolescent boys respond in a similar way, suggesting this may underlie a potentially harmful process.”
“Threats to masculinity go beyond simple aggression and are associated with a range of negative and anti-social behaviours, including sexism, homophobia, political bigotry and even anti-environmentalism,” Stanaland adds.
“Our findings call for boys to proactively challenge the restrictive norms and social pressures for stereotypical masculinity that they face from their parents and peers, especially during adolescence.”
Research has long shown that perceived threats to men’s “gender typicality” — appearance and behavior conforming to society’s expectations for women and men — can lead men to engage in harmful behaviors to reassert typicality. Researchers in the new study sought to understand the development of this phenomenon and the social environment in which it occurs.
Stanaland, a doctoral student at Duke University, led the experiment with more than 200 boys and one parent in the United States. The boys first reported the extent to which their motivation to be masculine was intrinsic, or driven by a desire to gain the approval or avoid disapproval of others.
The boys then played a game in which they answered five typical questions about masculinity (e.g., “Which of these tools is a Phillips head screwdriver?”) and five typical questions about femininity (e.g., “Which of these flowers is a poppy fairy?”).
Participants were randomly told that their score would be either atypical for their gender (i.e., more like girls and a “threat” to masculinity) or typical for their gender (i.e., more like other boys and not a threat).
To measure aggression, the study authors asked study participants to take part in a cognitive task in which they had to complete a series of word stems (e.g., “GU_”) that could either be completed aggressively (e.g., “GUN”) or not (e.g., “GUY” or “GUT”). In this commonly used task, the proportion of aggressive word stem completions is the key measure.
The study also took into account demographic and other variables. To pinpoint the stages in life when gender typicality may affect aggression, the boys, with parental permission, answered questions on the Scales of Pubertal Development, a standard and validated measure of adolescence.
Participants answered questions about things like changes in their voice and beard growth, rating them on a scale of 1 = not yet started, 2 = barely started, 3 = definitely started, and 4 = seems complete. Given the sensitivity of the scale, participants could select “I don’t know” or “prefer not to answer” for any item.
Finally, the researchers considered environmental factors that may motivate boys to conform to gender stereotypes, including pressures that boys may feel from peers, parents, and themselves. They also asked parents in the study about their beliefs about gender.
Questions and data are available at the Open Science Center. Website.
The results of the experiment were as follows:
- Similar to young adult males, boys in mid-to-late adolescence (but not earlier) responded aggressively to perceived threats to their gender typicality.
- Aggression increased among boys whose motivation to conform to gender stereotypes came not from within themselves but from pressure from others (i.e., driven by social expectations).
- Boys who were most likely to reveal this “pressure motivation” were those whose parents endorsed stereotypes about masculine status and power (for example, that men should have more power than people of the other gender).
“Male aggression poses challenges to societies around the world, from public safety to intimate personal relationships,” said Andrei Cimpian, a professor of psychology at New York University and lead author of the study.
“By identifying when and why certain boys begin to respond aggressively to threats to their masculinity, this study is a first step in preventing the development of ‘fragile’ masculinity among adult men – a masculinity that needs to be constantly proven and reasserted – and its many negative consequences.”
Other authors of the paper include Duke professors Sarah Gaither and Anna Guzman-Pines, and Daniela Galvez Cepeda, a research assistant in Cimpian’s Cognitive Development Lab and a recent Williams College graduate.
Funding: This study was partially funded by the Charles Lafitte Foundation.
About this research news on neurodevelopment and aggression
author: James Devitt
sauce: New York University
contact: James Devitt – NYU
image: Image courtesy of Neuroscience News
Original Research: The survey results are as follows: Developmental Science
