This study from Duke University led by Stanaland, a doctoral student, was reported in the Journal of Developmental Science and shows that some adolescent boys may also respond aggressively when they believe their masculinity is under threat. These aggressive responses were more prevalent among boys who are raised in environments where gender norms are too rigid and stereotypical.
Andrei Cimpian, senior author and professor at the Department of Psychology at NYU, believes that “Men’s aggression presents challenges for societies across the world, ranging from public safety to intimate personal relationships”
Years of research have shown that men can engage in harmful behaviours and activities to reassert their gender typicality if they perceive a threat to it. This latest study, consisting of various stages, was intended to find out the root cause of this behaviour and whether it is seen in adolescent boys or not.
Stages of Experiment
Stage 1: 200 adolescent boys from the US, reported on the extent to which their ‘motivation to be masculine’ was internally motivated or instead motivated by a desire to gain other people’s approval or avoid their disapproval.
Stage 2: now, to measure aggression, participants were asked 5 questions stereotypical of masculinity, and 5 questions stereotypical of feminity. Then, they were randomly told that either their scores were more like girls i.e. atypical of their gender, or more like the other boys i.e. typical of their gender. The first condition is a threat to their masculinity while the latter is non-threatening. After that, they were asked to complete some word stems that could be either completed aggressively (GU_ — GUN) or non-aggressively (GUY, GUT)
These adolescent boys were also asked to fill out the Pubertal Developmental Scale, to pinpoint the life stage in which gender typically could affect aggression. Finally, these boys were asked questions about the societal pressure from peers, parents, and even themselves.
Conclusion
The results of this experiment showed that some boys start responding aggressively to the perception of a threat to their masculinity when they are around the age of mid-puberty. Boys, whose motivation to be gender typical, is a result of social expectations and not of their personality had heightened aggression. Those participants were more likely to exhibit this ‘pressured motivation’ whose parents endorse stereotypical beliefs like men should have more power than people of other genders.
This research is a landmark step in preventing the development of such fragile masculinities that need to be constantly proven and reasserted along with their many negative consequences among young men. It would only seem possible after identifying why and when certain boys begin to show aggressive responses to masculinity threats.
Read More From Psychologs
Leave feedback about this