Rhetoric aside, there may be a real vein that these pundits and politicians are tapping into.
Deaths of despair, which are caused by drugs, alcohol, or suicide, are disproportionately experienced by men. Meanwhile, many of the traditional markers of manhood—earning enough money to raise a family, buy a home, or even rent an apartment—are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain.
What does it mean for society if young men sense that their masculinity is under threat? Or for our politics, if young men see less hope for the future?
In 2021, psychologist Adam Stanaland and his colleagues conducted an experiment exploring masculinity anxiety in young men between the ages of 18 and 40. They found that statements as simple as “you are less masculine than the average man” could provoke aggression among the study’s participants.
For their next study, they turned to adolescent boys, with a couple of key questions in mind: When does masculine anxiety start to appear? And what fuels it?
In the findings, which they published in July 2024, they were able to show that boys in late puberty—but not those in early puberty—would respond aggressively when their masculinity was challenged.
