Precarious Masculinity And Its Effects On Social Dominance Orientation

There are rituals and statements about masculinity around us and throughout human history.For example,"you’re not a man" is used to attack men,but "you’re not a woman" is not an attack on a woman.Why masculinity is more threatened than femininity? Studies in neuroscience,sociology,and psychology suggest that compared to femininity,masculinity is precarious.On the basis of previous studies,this study was divided into three sub-studies.The main purpose of this study is to test the precarious masculinity,explore the influence of precarious masculinity on social dominance orientation,and to investigate the role of gender identity in it.Study 1 recruited 216 college students,using two sets of questionnaires,which includ 7 statements that express the instability of masculinity and the instability of femininity as experimental materials,and using 2 subjects gender(male,female)× 2two sets of questionnaires(precarious masculinity,precarious femininity)to test the precarious qualities of masculinity.The results showed that the male subjects rated the masculinity precarious statement more highly than the feminine precarious statement,while the female subjects did not score significantly differently between the two sets of questionnaires.Now that masculinity has been shown to be precarious on an objective level,do men exhibit the instability of masculinity on a subjective level? Study 2 recruited 109 male college students,using a single-factor(masculinity manipulation: threat /assurance / control)test design.A fake personality test was used to manipulate masculinity.The results showed that participants from the masculinity threat group had higher social dominance orientation than participants from the masculinity assurance and control group.Social identity theory emphasizes the importance of individual identity in assessing threats to group identity.In this case,it suggests that gender identity may play an important role in individuals facing threats to masculinity.Hence,study 3 is based on study 2,73 participants were randomly assigned to masculinity threat and masculinity assurance groups.We added gender identity to this study,to explore the potential role of gender identity in masculinity threat.The results showed that male participants with high gender identity had a higher level of social dominance orientation after experiencing the threat of masculinity.In this study,the following conclusions were obtained through three sub-studies:(1)Men identify with precarious masculinity more than women do.(2)Precarious masculinity has an impact on men’s social dominance orientation.(3)Gender identity plays a moderating role in the precarious masculinity and social dominance orientation.