Examining Masculinity Threat, Motivation, and Academic Performance in Gender Typical and Atypical Fields (Poster 43)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Sunday 9:50 a.m.
  In Poster Session: Social Processes and Stereotypes

Abstract

Men in the United States have seen worsening undergraduate outcomes and low participation in social sciences and humanities, potentially related to these fields being seen as feminine. The theory of precarious manhood suggests that men perform actions that reaffirm their manhood when their masculinity is threatened. The present exploratory experiment examined if a masculinity threat impacted undergraduate men’s motivation and performance on a gender typical task (quantitative multiple-choice problems) and a gender atypical task (verbal multiple-choice problems). The masculinity threat only resulted in reduced performance on the verbal task among participants that completed the verbal task first but did not have an effect on other outcomes. Implications and future considerations for masculinity threat experiments are discussed.

Authors

• Nathaniel Woznicki, New York University

• Patricia Chen, University of Texas at Austin