New study points to impact of pressure during puberty to be stereotypically masculine.
Research indicates adolescent boys show increased aggression when their masculinity is perceived as threatened, especially under social pressures to conform to traditional masculine norms. The study highlights the importance of addressing these pressures during puberty to prevent negative behaviors linked to fragile masculinities.
It’s been long established that certain men become aggressive when they see their manhood as being threatened. When does this behavior emerge during development—and why? A new study by a team of psychology researchers shows that adolescent boys may also respond aggressively when they believe their masculinity is under threat—especially boys growing up in environments with rigid, stereotypical gender norms.
The findings, reported today (July 15) in the journal Developmental Science, underscore the effects of social pressure that many boys face to be stereotypically masculine.
Social Pressures and Negative Behaviors Linked to Masculinity Threats
“We know that not all men respond aggressively to manhood threats—in past work, we have found that it is primarily men whose stereotypical masculinity is socially pressured who are the most aggressive under such threats,” says Adam Stanaland, a postdoctoral researcher at New York University and the paper’s lead author. “Now we have evidence that certain adolescent boys respond similarly, pointing to the foundations of these potentially harmful processes.”
“Beyond just aggression, manhood threats are associated with a wide variety of negative, antisocial behaviors, such as sexism, homophobia, political bigotry, and even anti-environmentalism,” adds Stanaland. “Our findings call for actively challenging the restrictive norms and social pressure that boys face to be stereotypically masculine, particularly during puberty and coming from their parents and peers.”
Study Design and Experimental Setup
Studies have long shown that perceived threats to men’s “gender typicality”—the alignment of appearance and behaviors with societal expectations for women and men—can cause them to engage in harmful behaviors intended to reassert their typicality. The researchers in the new study sought to understand the development of this phenomenon and the social environments in which it occurs.
Stanaland, as a Duke University doctoral student, led this experiment, which included more than 200 adolescent boys in the US and one of their parents. Boys first reported on the extent to which their motivation to be masculine was internally motivated or instead driven by a desire to gain other people’s approval or avoid their disapproval. The boys then played a game in which they answered five questions stereotypical of masculinity (e.g., “Which of these tools is a Phillips-head screwdriver?”) and five questions stereotypical of femininity (e.g., “Which of these flowers is a poppy fairy?”). At random, they were told that their score was either atypical of their gender (i.e., more like girls and a “threat” to their masculinity) or typical of their gender (i.e., more like other boys and non-threatening).
To measure aggression, the study’s authors then asked the study’s participants to partake in a cognitive task: completing a series of word stems (e.g., “GU_”) that could be completed either aggressively (e.g., “GUN”) or not (e.g., “GUY” or “GUT”). In this commonly used task, the key indicator is the proportion of aggressive word completions.
Findings and Implications for Future Research
The study also took into account demographics and other variables. In an effort to pinpoint the life stage in which gender typicality could have an effect on aggression, the boys, with parental approval, responded to questions on the Pubertal Development Scale, a standard and validated measure of puberty. They answered questions pertaining to changes in their voice and facial hair growth, among others, rated on the following scale: 1=not yet started, 2=barely started, 3=definitely started, or 4=seems complete. Given the sensitivity of this scale, participants were allowed to select “I don’t know” or “Prefer not to say” to any item.
Finally, the researchers considered environmental sources that might pressure the boys to be motivated to be gender-typical, including the pressure they said they felt from peers, parents, and themselves. They also asked the participating parents about their beliefs relating to gender.
The questions and data may be found on the Center for Open Science website.
The experimental results showed the following:
- Similar to young adult men, adolescent boys in mid-to-late puberty (but not before) responded with aggression to perceived threats to their gender typicality.
- Aggression was heightened among boys whose motivation to be gender typical was due to pressure from others (i.e., driven by social expectations) rather than from within themselves.
- The boys most likely to reveal this “pressured motivation” were those whose parents endorsed stereotypical beliefs about men’s status and power (e.g., that men should have more power than people of other genders).
“Men’s aggression presents challenges for societies across the world, ranging from public safety to intimate personal relationships,” observes Andrei Cimpian, a professor in NYU’s Department of Psychology and the paper’s senior author. “By identifying when and why certain boys begin showing aggressive responses to masculinity threats, this research is a first step in preventing the development of ‘fragile’ masculinities—masculinities that need to be constantly proved and reasserted—and their many negative consequences among adult men.”
Reference: “Adolescent boys’ aggressive responses to perceived threats to their gender typicality” by Adam Stanaland, Sarah Gaither, Anna Gassman-Pines, Daniela Galvez-Cepeda and Andrei Cimpian, 15 July 2024, Developmental Science.
DOI: 10.1111/desc.13544
The paper’s other authors included Sarah Gaither and Anna Gassman-Pines, professors at Duke University, and Daniela Galvez-Cepeda, a research assistant in Cimpian’s Cognitive Development Lab and a recent Williams College graduate.
The research was funded, in part, by the Charles Lafitte Foundation.
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13 Comments
The researchers have clearly never tried questioning a woman’s femininity. They would receive more-hostile feedback than “aggressive word completion”.
What sort of agenda does Duke University and NYU and the Charles Lafitte Foundation have? It’s a perverse non-sequitur, randomly telling boys they’re actually like girls and judging the aggressiveness of their word puzzle answers. And if “boys turn aggressive”, why is “guy” considered as non-aggressive as “gut” but an inanimate “gun” is? This sort of study is illuminating, not at all for its intended subject, but about the psychology of the researchers and institutions and funders.
Obviously that’s a problem too. OH, yeah, and thanks for proving their point. LOL
Yes, so funny, I thought the same, but really a crime that psychologists would be just opening this door, it’s a travesty, these unhappy boys become adult killers. Why are psychologists the last to know? That’s why God (sic) wants morally deranged macho men, so that the elites can use these men to commit all sorts of hideous crimes. I suspect that just because of the runaway corruption in Western Civilization these psychological studies will be used to further harm society even more so than they all ready have, with the present narrative.
Its pretty sad and pathetic this site would publish trash like this.
Not science one bit, just pure agenda driven propaganda.
“that men should have more power than people of other genders”
I mean WTF? Do we live in clown world?
Yes, it’s a clown world; you’re just waking up to the fact? And, by the rest of your comment you became a victim of it, and became a further perpetrator of it.
well…. yeah I mean it’s going to be cultural. Like whatever the culture is and your immediate vicinity, that culture is one where not just other men and not just women but everyone will reject you and demean you if you don’t act masculine.
it’s not even just physical aggression. sometimes it is that but there’s also like.. social dominance aggression where the goal is making the other person seem intellectually weaker than you pervasively like you’re always multiple steps ahead of them in whatever ironic narrative you’re spinning. And if they get angry because of that they lose because it makes them look like a child.
in middle class culture where violence is extremely frowned upon, I think this like generated a certain archetypes of dudes. Like the -extremely laid-back doesn’t take themselves seriously, extremely, overly humble, everything is going to be fine everything’s going to work out” that kind of guy, that’s a defense against people trying to be intellectually duperior. you are just refusing entirely to play the game but you’re so chill and nice about it that they can’t really keep going otherwise they look like an asshole. The other arctype I thought it was sigma males. And that’s mostly a meme but it’s also not like I know people that are like that. 100% focused on their own personal like development they want to make money they work out they get whatever degrees they need in order to make money. you could be dying and if they have something that is going to improve their life even a small amount at the same time, they will choose that.
But then there’s Latino culture which is extremely respect-based and violence is not just justified, but demanded in response to certain things that seem insane to me.
Anyone who is familiar with cattle knows that bulls behave differently from cows. Male violence is a serious social problem, and it makes sense to research ways to combat it. But since in environments with strong stereotyped gender roles, having one’s masculinity challenged can even put one’s life in danger, of course it will provoke a response. The dangerous behavior that should be studied with a view to eliminating it is that of those doing the challenging. It’s trying to stigmatize some other males as less masculine that is an aggressive means of securing an unjust advantage for oneself.
Never forget the role of media in this either
Was money spent on this useless study? Boys’ aggression has been known for 1000s of years.
Wasted money you would say; but did you also notice that those very same men died in wars during those thousands of years? Really, check out the Goddess Inanna, approximately 5,000 years ago. But, this culture if you haven’t noticed is about to cause this species to go extinct.
We used to blame parents for that. But yeah, any pseudoscientific excuse will do these days, just so no one has to raise the children up properly.
These researchers are truly clueless. The testosterone research for years has shown what ia being called “Threat Vigilance.” This threat vigilance pushes men and boys to defend their status if it is questioned. This seems to be what the researchers were trying to show and not being aware of the psysiological nature of males is a sign that they are poorly informed at best and likely are pushing an agenda. I went to my University library and searched for this and it would not come up. hmmmm
In third grade a bully started targeting me for fun. When I fought back, the school admin’s punished me in front of him… guess what, he didn’t stop harassing me. This kept up for a few years, stopping only when he got sent to juvie for five years. They let him out for his senior year of H.S. … he didn’t make it halfway thru before he got arrested again. Recently, I Googled him… he’s in prison down in Florida, and has apparently spent most of his life behind bars.
Defending yourself isn’t aggressive behaviour. Bullying is. Punishing the victim in front of the aggressor turns you into the bully’s enforcer. Take the time to actually learn what is happening, instead of using ideologically based knee-jerk reactions. You may be saving two individuals a lifetime of stress.