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Political identity, gender identity or both? The political effects of sexual orientation and gender identity items in survey research
Abstract
Issues arising from the measurement of gender identity on surveys have received scant attention from survey methodologists. We make use of three studies (two in the US and one in Mexico) to look at the effects of asking about gender identity on downstream measurements of political party affiliation. In all three studies, we show a significant impact of priming respondents to think about gender identity on expressed political identity. In two of the studies, we also find conditional effects based on the predispositions of respondents, and we find throughout that these effects are much stronger for men than for women.
Key messages
Asking about their gender identity leads to significant shifts in men’s reported partisanship.
In the US, saying that they are more masculine leads men to say that they are more Republican.
While they are needed to bring our analyses in line with our theories, researchers need to be careful about how they use sexual orientation and gender identity items in surveys. </ul
... Gender determines how individuals define themselves in ethnic and cultural context, and how they choose to process ethnic identity and in-group characteristics (Qin 2009). Gender also influences modes of political participation and political identity (Cassino and Besen-Cassino 2021). Based on our knowledge that gender affects both ethnic identity and political behavior, we might expect gender to affect the association between the two. ...
... In this example, we found a marked similarity between the gender groups in the effect of ethnic mobilization on in-group or out-group identification. Although gender has been found to affect both ethnic identity (Qin 2009) and political behavior (Cassino and Besen-Cassino 2021), it did not affect the association between the two. Rather, the similarity between the gender groups is striking, and this in itself is an important finding. ...
The topic of gender blindness is increasingly gaining the attention of researchers. Even in fields that do not commonly engage with gender, gender blindness has been recognized as a factor that has potential to limit the validity of research findings. This article explores the prevalence and implications of gender blindness in quantitative research for political science outcomes. We first reanalyze three articles recently published in the American Journal of Political Science ( AJPS ) to illustrate the impact of gender blindness on quantitative research. Next, we classify all articles with quantitative methodology published in the AJPS in 2018 and 2019 by the degree of gender blindness in the research design. Our findings demonstrate how gender blindness impacts outcomes and estimate its prevalence in political science. They show that accounting for gender yields more accurate results and facilitates a better understanding of political behavior and phenomena.
... 4 Recently, scholars of gender and political behavior have moved beyond simply comparing respondents across binary "sex" variables to examine variation in respondents' self-conceptions as masculine and/or feminine in order to explain political outcomes. 5 These studies have shown that masculine and/or feminine self-conceptions offer considerable explanatory power for a range of political outcomes (Bittner and Goodyear-Grant 2017a;2017b;Cassino 2020;Cassino and Besen-Cassino 2021;Gidengil and Stolle 2021). However, these studies-even ones that use data from online surveys-still use traditional categorical measures of "sex" that do not allow individuals to identify as nonbinary. ...
The “gender gap” in voting is one of the most well-documented findings in survey research across democracies. However, gender gap research has traditionally assumed that everyone is either a man or a woman, which does not account for the growing number of people who identify as nonbinary. How do nonbinary people differ from men and women in their party identification and voting behavior? We answer this question using data from the 2021 Canadian Election Study online panel, which has a large enough subsample of nonbinary respondents to identify gaps in party identification and voting behavior. Nonbinary people are much less likely to identify with and vote for the Liberal Party or Conservative Party and much more likely to identify with and vote for the social democratic New Democratic Party (NDP) than both men and women. Many of these gaps persist even when restricting the analysis to LGBTQ respondents, adjusting for demographic variables that predict nonbinary identity, and adjusting for issue attitudes. Nonbinary people’s distinctiveness from men and women suggests that researchers need to add nonbinary response options to gender questions and, wherever possible, incorporate nonbinary people into analyses of gender and politics.
... Third, gender should be treated as dynamic rather than static (Westbrook & Saperstein, 2015). Fourth, gender and sex questions should occur at the end of the survey to avoid priming respondents to think di erently about subsequent questions (Cassino & Besen-Cassino, 2021). Fifth, language, culture, race, and ethnicity need to inform creating gender measures and adapting English-language questions for di erent contexts. ...
This volume contains 30 chapters that provide an up-to-date account of key topics and areas of research in political psychology. In general, the chapters apply what is known about human psychology to the study of politics. Chapters draw on theory and research on biopsychology, neuroscience, personality, psychopathology, evolutionary psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and intergroup relations. Some chapters address the political psychology of political elites—their personality, motives, beliefs, and leadership styles, and their judgments, decisions, and actions in domestic policy, foreign policy, international conflict, and conflict resolution. Other chapters deal with the dynamics of mass political behavior: voting, collective action, the influence of political communications, political socialization and civic education, group-based political behavior, social justice, and the political incorporation of immigrants. Research discussed in the volume is fueled by a mix of age-old questions and recent world events.
... Third, gender should be treated as dynamic rather than static (Westbrook & Saperstein, 2015). Fourth, gender and sex questions should occur at the end of the survey to avoid priming respondents to think di erently about subsequent questions (Cassino & Besen-Cassino, 2021). Fifth, language, culture, race, and ethnicity need to inform creating gender measures and adapting English-language questions for di erent contexts. ...
This volume contains 30 chapters that provide an up-to-date account of key topics and areas of research in political psychology. In general, the chapters apply what is known about human psychology to the study of politics. Chapters draw on theory and research on biopsychology, neuroscience, personality, psychopathology, evolutionary psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and intergroup relations. Some chapters address the political psychology of political elites—their personality, motives, beliefs, and leadership styles, and their judgments, decisions, and actions in domestic policy, foreign policy, international conflict, and conflict resolution. Other chapters deal with the dynamics of mass political behavior: voting, collective action, the influence of political communications, political socialization and civic education, group-based political behavior, social justice, and the political incorporation of immigrants. Research discussed in the volume is fueled by a mix of age-old questions and recent world events.
... Recently, scholars of gender and political behavior have moved beyond simply comparing respondents across binary "sex" variables to examine variation in respondents' self-conceptions as masculine and/or feminine to explain political outcomes. 3 These studies have shown that gender role self-conceptions as masculine and/or feminine offer considerable explanatory power for a range of political outcomes (Bittner and Goodyear-Grant, 2017a,b;Cassino, 2020;Cassino and Besen-Cassino, 2021;Gidengil and Stolle, 2021). Even in these studies, however, traditional categorical measures of sex or gender are still important predictors of political attitudes and behaviors. ...
The gender gap in voting is one of the most well-documented findings in political behavior across democracies. However, gender gap research has traditionally assumed that everyone is either a man or a woman. How do nonbinary people differ from men and women in their party identification and voting behavior? We answer this question using data from the 2021 Canadian Election Study online panel. Nonbinary people are much less likely to identify with and vote Liberal or Conservative and much more likely to identify with and vote for the social democratic New Democratic Party (NDP) than both men and women. Many of these gaps persist even when restricting the analysis to LGBTQ respondents, adjusting for demographic variables that predict nonbinary identity, and adjusting for issue attitudes. Nonbinary people’s distinctiveness from men and women suggests that researchers need to incorporate nonbinary people into studies of political behavior.
... Similar results have been recorded in a Canadian sample (Bittner and Goodyear-grant, 2017a). Although in Mexico, higher scores of masculinity and gender conformity were associated with stronger identification with a left party: demonstrating the contextual nature of these relationships (Cassino and Besen-Cassino, 2021). However, depending on the research question, one drawback to the traits-based methodology is that it does not specify whether individuals perceive masculine or feminine traits as important to their self-concept. ...
The gender gap in welfare state attitudes is the tendency of men to be less positive toward an encompassing welfare state than women. To study attitudinal gender differences at the individual level, this paper synthesizes prior explanations, focused on self-interest and norms, with a social identity perspective, centered on the process of social identification with a gender group. With representative survey data ( n = 1515), covering social spending preferences in Sweden, this study uses a psychometric instrument to gauge the emotional and psychological centrality of gender to individuals’ concept of self—thus distinguishing between men and women with different degrees of attachment to their gender group (strength of gender identification). The results show a strong gender identification is negatively related to social spending preferences for men, but not for women. The findings are discussed in the light the influence of gender norms and masculinity threat, highlighting the structuring and normative implications of social policy for gender differences in attitudes toward the Swedish welfare state.
... For example, it is possible that online research may foster fake responses or "troll" participants using an SOGI survey as a platform of mischief (Jaroszewski et al., 2018). Alternatively, SOGI responses may be primed or cause changes in other responses for immediately subsequent items (Cassino and Besen-Cassino, 2021). Importantly, Prolific has several ways of ensuring data quality and validating participants' true demographics to eliminate any use of bots, cheats, or trolls. ...
This research examines whether the mere presence of asking about gender pronouns (e.g., she/her, he/him, they/them, and ze/zir) in a survey enhances participants’ attitudes and satisfaction of answering the questions. A large sample (N = 1,511) of heterosexual, cisgender, and LGBTQIA+ participants across the United States (US) were surveyed an online “personality test” (as a deception), with the real purpose of examining whether asking a pronoun question enhanced their perceptions of the survey. Three demographic groups were included: (i) heterosexual–cisgender (n = 503), (ii) gay–cisgender (n = 509), and (iii) genderqueer (trans, non-conforming, other, n = 499). Half of each group were randomly given either a survey that included a gender pronoun question (test) or not (control), and then all rated their perceptions of the survey questions. For participants who identified as heterosexual or gay, no major differences were found between survey conditions. However, participants who identified as genderqueer experienced significant increases of satisfaction, comfort level, and perceived relevance of the questions when given a survey that asked their gender pronouns versus the survey that did not. These findings have implications for any surveys that ask about personal demographics, and suggest that any form of written communication should include clarity about gender pronouns.
... Is gender identity pushing political identity, or is political identity pushing gender identity? The answer, according to experiments previously carried out by Cassino and Besen-Cassino (2020) is yes. Increasing the salience of gender identity changes the expression of partisanship, and increasing the salience of partisanship changes expressed gender identity on similar scales. ...
This paper examines how Kirant Rai folk narratives influence gendered representation, self-identity, and socio-political dynamics within the community. Particularly, it centers on four significant folk narratives: Hechchhakuppa, Yala Hang and Sakelung, Sawanam, and Sumdima and Paruhang, which I collected through extensive interviews conducted with knowledgeable elders, Mangpa, and elder community members. To analyze these narratives and uncover their thematic implications, the study employs Alan Dundes' functional theory and incorporates the political ideas of Ranciere. The primary data for this research consists of narrative texts supplemented by secondary data sourced from libraries and online resources. This study reveals that these folk narratives have played a pivotal role in shaping gendered representation, self-identity, and the individually valued roles that contribute to the socio-political dynamics prevalent in the community since the narratives' inception. By uncovering these findings, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the cultural significance and social dynamics of the people. It highlights the transformative power of these folk narratives and their influence on various aspects of the community's social fabric by broadening knowledge and appreciation of the Kirant Rai cultural heritage while, at the same time shedding light on the intricate interplay between narratives, gender roles, self-perception, and sociopolitical dynamics.
This study offers a multidimensional analysis of individuals’ self-assessments of their masculine and feminine characteristics to better understand variation from more to less binary gender identities. Through gender’s co-constitution along with various social localities, we expect that a number of socio-political factors differentiate individuals’ gender identities through self-assessments of their masculine and feminine characteristics. Using data from a 2013 Swedish survey, our results show that men and women tend towards traditionally polarised gender identities and that social location is a particularly influential correlate of men’s claims of feminine characteristics and women’s of masculine characteristics. Individuals from younger generations and individuals who are more educated are consistently more likely to ascribe to less binary feminine and masculine characteristics. This suggests that generational replacement and higher education may increase the tendency of populations to ascribe to less binary gender identities.
Key messages
Measuring individuals self-assessed masculine and feminine characteristics.
Exploring the influence of social location on gender identity. </ul
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, men have been consistently less likely to report wearing a protective face mask. There are several possible reasons for this difference, including partisanship and gender identity. Using a national live-caller telephone survey that measures gender identity, we show that men's gender identities are strongly related to their views of mask wearing, especially when gender identity is highly salient to the individual. The effects of this interaction of sex and gender are shown to be separate from the effects of partisanship. While partisanship is a significant driver of attitudes about face masks, within partisan groups, men who report “completely” masculine gender identities are very different from their fellow partisans.
In the social sciences, many quantitative research findings as well as presentations of demographics are related to participants’ gender. Most often, gender is represented by a dichotomous variable with the possible responses of woman/man or female/male, although gender is not a binary variable. It is, however, rarely defined what is meant by gender. In this article, we deconstruct the concept ‘gender’ as consisting of several facets, and argue that the researcher needs to identify relevant aspects of gender in relation to their research question. We make a thorough exposition of considerations that the researcher should bear in mind when formulating questions about each facet, in order to exemplify how complex this construct is. We also remind the researcher that gender is not a binary category and discuss challenges in the balance between taking existing gender diversity into account and yet sorting participants into gender categorisations that function in statistical analyzes. To aid in this process, we provide an empirical example on how gender identity may be categorised when using a free-text response. Lastly, we suggest that other measurements than participants’ gender might be better predictors of the outcome variable.
Negativity toward gay men and transgender people is pervasive. Past research suggests that authoritarianism predicts biases against transgender people, in part due to an essentialist view of gender. To determine the generalizability of these findings, but with political conservatism as the focal predictor, we re-analyzed Norton and Herek’s (2013) large (n = 2281) nationally representative U.S. dataset. In doing so, we modeled a latent factor indicated by anti-transgender attitudes and prejudice toward gay men to capture prejudice toward gender non-conformists. That is, prejudice against transgender people and gay men on the political right might arise from perceived gender norm violations, which binary gender beliefs could potentially explain. Consistent with social dominance theory, results revealed that those more conservative in ideology were more likely to display prejudice toward gender non-conformists in part due to their greater endorsement of binary gender beliefs. Unexpectedly, and novel to the existing literature, conservatism predicted binary gender beliefs and prejudice toward gender non-conformists more strongly for women than for men. Binary gender beliefs seemingly function as a legitimizing myth to bolster existing hierarchical relations between gender conforming versus gender non-conforming people, particularly among conservative women.
The outcome of the 2016 US presidential election cycle generated a great deal of attention about the political psychology of the average American voter. A familiar narrative was that authoritarianism, perhaps triggered by fears of cultural and economic change, was the primary driver of support for Donald Trump. This article argues that sexism has been underestimated as a political force, especially given the angry emotional climate. The article first explores the electoral role of sexism early in the campaign, finding that sexism powerfully predicted vote choice even after controlling for authoritarianism, partisanship, and other predispositions. Second, the article analyzes American National Election Studies time-series data to examine the impact of sexism in recent presidential elections, demonstrating that 2016 was the only year in which it played a large and significant role. Finally, a survey experiment tests the theorized causal mechanism underlying sexism's influence: the catalyzing power of anger versus fear. Fear sharply reduced sexism's impact on support for Trump relative to those who experienced anger. Further, anger powerfully mobilized sexists, a group that would normally be likely to stay home. These results illuminate the role that emotional undercurrents play in catalyzing group-based predispositions into politics.
We explore how gender, attitudes about traditional gender roles, and threats to masculinity and femininity affect U.S. participants’ support for transgender rights. First, we present analyses using data from the 2016 pilot survey of the American National Election Survey (ANES) showing how men and women differ in their attitudes toward transgender people as measured by thermometer ratings toward transgender people and questions about perceptions of whether they are victims of discrimination. Next, we describe our randomized laboratory experiment, testing three hypotheses/predictions: (a) that men are less supportive of transgender people and rights than women are, (2) that threatening a man’s masculinity increases opposition to transgender rights whereas threatening a woman’s femininity has no effect, and (3) that this effect will be stronger among men who report that their gender identity is very important to them. Consistent with existing scholarship, we find that women are more supportive of transgender rights compared to men. More importantly, we also find that threatened masculinity is an even better predictor of opposition to transgender rights than gender identity. In short, we find that attitudes toward transgender people and rights are closely linked with the way people think and feel about their own gender identity and expectations of gender performance.
The importance of sex and gender to political behavior is reflected in the volume of work examining gender gaps in public opinion and partisan choice. Despite their centrality, sex and gender are poorly measured in survey research. The principal problem is the conflation of gender with sex in survey research. Consequently, gender is typically treated as a dichotomy, with no response options for androgynous gender identities, or indeed degrees of identification with masculine or feminine identities. We compare a new measure of genuine gender identification with a conventional measure of biological sex to determine whether the practice of using sex as a proxy for gender is sound. Sex is a fair proxy for gender, but for about a quarter of our sample, it is not. Moreover, greater nuance is gained when analyses incorporate a finer-grained measure of gender than is possible by using biological sex as a substitute. We argue that this is simply the start to an important conversation and that more research is needed to ascertain how we might best measure “gender” in the future.
Survey measures of gender have been critiqued for failing to reflect the diversity of the population. Conventionally, respondents to national surveys are categorized as female or male. Calls for improvement have centered on adding additional categories, such as transgender. We propose that in addition to revising categorical gender measures, national surveys should incorporate gradational measures of femininity and masculinity to better reflect gender diversity and sharpen models of gender inequality. Our results from two national pilot studies show that conventional measures mask significant variation within the categories of female and male. For example, less than a quarter of respondents reported that they are very feminine or masculine, respectively, and not at all the other. We also demonstrate that scale responses can be treated as independent variables in studies of inequality or as dependent variables that allow gender identification to be an outcome of social processes.
RESUMEN 2015 fue un año muy complejo para México. No solo porque celebró unas elecciones críticas, que suponían la implementación de una reforma electoral constitucional compleja, sino porque se dieron en un contexto de alta conflictividad social, inseguridad y violencia política, y en el marco de un cada vez mayor descontento ciudadano respecto de la política. A tres años del inicio de su mandato, el presidente Peña Nieto experimentó un escenario económico adverso y una caída significativa en los niveles de aprobación ciudadana tras diversos sucesos como la tragedia de Ayotzinapa, denuncias por corrupción y las dificultades para satisfacer las expectativas de la ciudadanía sobre el crecimiento económico. Gracias a una fragmentación inédita del voto, la coalición gubernamental logró mantener la mayoría en el Congreso. Palabras clave: México, elecciones intermedias, reforma 2014, violencia política, desconfianza ciudadana.
There is no doubt that partisanship is a powerful influence on democratic political behavior. But there is also a lively debate on its nature and origins: Is it largely instrumental in nature and shaped by party performance and issues stances? Or is it basically a long-standing expressive identity reinforced by motivated reasoning and strong emotions? We assess the nature of partisanship in the European context, examining the measurement properties and predictive validity of a multi-item partisan identity scale included in national surveys conducted in the Netherlands, Sweden, and the U.K. Using a latent variable model, we show that an eight-item partisan identity scale provides greater information about partisan intensity than a standard single-item and has the same measurement properties across the three countries. In addition, the identity scale better predicts in-party voting and political participation than a measure of ideological intensity (based on both left–right self-placement and agreement with the party on key issues), providing support for an expressive approach to partisanship in several European democracies.
Resumen
En el presente texto se observa que el sistema de partidos en México se ha caracterizado por el establecimiento de tres ofertas políticas predominantes: PRI, PAN y PRD, correspondiente al pluralismo moderado. Sin embargo, este predominio tripartidista ha limitado el crecimiento de los partidos pequeños y la emergencia de una cuarta fuerza política competitiva. El pluralismo moderado no ha alentado el desarrollo electoral de los nuevos partidos, algo que también se refleja en la integración del Congreso. La emergencia de MORENA, partido político, vino a modificar esa lógica, por su capacidad de convertirse en un partido competitivo, a la altura de los otros tres, bajo el liderazgo de Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The authors report 5 studies that demonstrate that manhood, in contrast to womanhood, is seen as a precarious state requiring continual social proof and validation. Because of this precariousness, they argue that men feel especially threatened by challenges to their masculinity. Certain male-typed behaviors, such as physical aggression, may result from this anxiety. Studies 1–3 document a robust belief in (a) the precarious nature of manhood relative to womanhood and (b) the idea that manhood is defined more by social proof than by biological markers. Study 4 demonstrates that when the precarious nature of manhood is made salient through feedback indicating gender-atypical performance, men experience heightened feelings of threat, whereas similar negative gender feedback has no effect on women. Study 5 suggests that threatening manhood (but not womanhood) activates physically aggressive thoughts.
Threats to masculinity can trigger compensatory mechanisms such as risk-taking, aggression, or disparagement of gender atypical others. In Study 1 (N = 76) we tested whether threat to men’s agentic self (information about the level of testosterone) influences men’s (a) attitudes toward parental duties, and (b) their support for gender equality. Polish men (but not women) whose gender identity was threatened manifested more traditional attitudes toward parental duties, were more willing to endorse stereotypical gender roles, and showed less support for gender equality and less willingness to support collective egalitarian actions. In Study 2 (N = 313) we found that agency is related to gender system justification in men, suggesting a potential mediator of the effects related to compensatory mechanisms evoked by a gender identity threat among men. This was confirmed in Study 3 (N = 131), where participants read a short scientific text either (a) emphasizing the existence of stereotypical gender differences in terms of agency and communality, or (b) claiming that there are no such differences. Results indicated that in the “no differences” condition, men (but not women) showed lower acceptance of gender inequality and a greater willingness to engage in domestic activities. This effect was mediated by participants’ self-perceived agency.
Research suggests that threatening men’s masculinity can lead to negative attitudes and aggressive behaviors. The current research expands on these findings by examining the effects of masculinity threats on attitudes about social inequality regarding women and gay men. Across studies, we predicted that men whose masculinity was threatened (compared to non-threatening controls) would be more accepting of social inequities that disadvantage women and gay men. Three hundred forty-four male students at a large northeastern U.S. university were randomly assigned to either (a) take a test about gender knowledge (Study 1 and 2) or (b) proofread either a gender knowledge test or university knowledge test (Study 2). Feedback on the test was altered to either threaten or assure masculinity. Following the test or proofreading task, men indicated their discomfort, anger (Study 2 only), and acceptance of discrimination and group-based inequality in society. In both studies identification with gender was measured as a potential moderator. The results of Study 1 (N = 160) showed that the masculinity manipulation only affected denial of discrimination against gay men, but this effect seemed to be related to the salience of gender rather than threatened masculinity. Study 2 (N = 184) added a gender salience comparison for clarification and replicated the results of Study 1, indicating that masculinity threats and assurances have effects independent of gender salience. In Study 1, men who were threatened and highly identified with their gender accepted more group-based inequality. The practical and social implications of these findings are discussed.
Data quality is one of the major concerns of using crowdsourcing websites such as Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to recruit participants for online behavioral studies. We compared two methods for ensuring data quality on MTurk: attention check questions (ACQs) and restricting participation to MTurk workers with high reputation (above 95% approval ratings). In Experiment 1, we found that high-reputation workers rarely failed ACQs and provided higher-quality data than did low-reputation workers; ACQs improved data quality only for low-reputation workers, and only in some cases. Experiment 2 corroborated these findings and also showed that more productive high-reputation workers produce the highest-quality data. We concluded that sampling high-reputation workers can ensure high-quality data without having to resort to using ACQs, which may lead to selection bias if participants who fail ACQs are excluded post-hoc.
The idea of “transnational business masculinity” is explored in life-history interviews with Australian managers. Their world is male-dominated but has a strong consciousness of change. An intense and stressful labor process creates multiple linkages among managers and subjects them to mutual scrutiny, a force for gender conservatism. In a context of affluence and anxiety, managers tend to treat their life as an enterprise and self-consciously manage bodies and emotions as well as finances. Economic globalization has heightened their insecurity and changed older patterns of business; different modes of participating in transnational business can be identified. Managerial masculinity is still centrally related to power, but changes from older bourgeois masculinity can also be detected: tolerance of diversity and heightened uncertainty about one’s place in the world and gender order. Some support is found for the transnational business masculinity hypothesis, but a spectrum of gender patterns must be recognized in an increasingly complex business environment.
The authors report 5 studies that demonstrate that manhood, in contrast to womanhood, is seen as a precarious state requiring continual social proof and validation. Because of this precariousness, they argue that men feel especially threatened by challenges to their masculinity. Certain male-typed behaviors, such as physical aggression, may result from this anxiety. Studies 1-3 document a robust belief in (a) the precarious nature of manhood relative to womanhood and (b) the idea that manhood is defined more by social proof than by biological markers. Study 4 demonstrates that when the precarious nature of manhood is made salient through feedback indicating gender-atypical performance, men experience heightened feelings of threat, whereas similar negative gender feedback has no effect on women. Study 5 suggests that threatening manhood (but not womanhood) activates physically aggressive thoughts.
When nonstigmatized individuals enact certain role-violating behaviors, they risk becoming "falsely accused deviants" (H. S. Becker, 1963, p. 20). For instance, when heterosexual men perform stereotypically feminine behaviors, they are liable to get misclassified as homosexual. Findings presented here reveal that expectations of identity misclassification fuel nonstigmatized individuals' negative reactions to role violations (Studies 1-2) and that using a disclaimer--that is, informing their audience of their nonstigmatized identity--assuages people's discomfort during a role-violating behavior (Studies 3-4). Moreover, when not concerned about being misclassified, nonstigmatized individuals benefit psychologically from the enactment of a challenging role violation (Study 4). Discussion considers the nature of the threat that misclassified role violators face and compares the plight of the falsely accused deviant to that of the truly stigmatized individual.
If men can respond to a threat to their masculinity by refusing to do the dishes, doing push-ups, or going to a more fundamentalist church, why not respond by espousing certain political views or favoring certain candidates?
This article presents pathways for deviating from sex and gender analyses norms to better incorporate sex and gender diversity in deviance studies. Synthesizing insights from emerging intersex, transgender, and gender-nonconforming scholarship and prior theorizing on the social construction of gender norms, I outline three separate, yet interrelated spectrums embedded in existing theorizing, and illustrate how more explicit engagement with each of these spectra individually and collectively may speak to unanswered questions and concerns about gender in society. In conclusion, I argue explicit attention to sex and gender spectrums creates possibilities for moving past binary norms in pursuit of better understanding the complexity of sex and gender in the social world.
Today, despite national campaigns and mass shootings, gun sales continue to rise. The majority of gun owners in the United States are men, and prior research has documented the complex relationship between masculinity and gun ownership. However, a majority of the research has remained on the micro level. In this article, we look at the effects of men’s unemployment on gun ownership. Using both national‐ and state‐level Federal Bureau of Investigation background‐check data as well as economic indicators, we find that worsening economic conditions for men (relative to women) lead to increases in gun sales. Moreover, this effect is exacerbated by the prevalence of guns in an area. We supplement these analyses with nationally representative survey data showing a strong relationship between perceptions of threat to men’s gender identities and opposition to laws limiting access to guns.
Trait stereotypes of men tend to be more fixed and negative than those of women. The current studies test whether stereotypes of men can be shifted through leveraging their social role as fathers. Trait attributes perceived to characterize women and moms were highly redundant, but those of men and dads were less so; moreover, men were perceived more negatively than dads, women, and moms (Study 1). Perceivers for whom the social role father was made salient rated men more similarly to dads, and no less similarly to men, and rated men more positively relative to a control condition (Study 2). Finally, among men, a threat to the category men resulted in greater opposition to benevolent social policies, but not if the social role father was primed (Study 3). Discussion focuses on positive consequences of increasing the psychological connection between men and fatherhood.
High-level guidelines for the treatment of crowdworkers.
We know how sex (rather than gender) structures political preferences, but researchers rarely take into account the salience or importance of gender identity at the individual level. The only similar variable for which salience is commonly taken seriously is partisanship, for which direction and importance or strength are both considered imperative for measurement and analysis. While some scholars have begun to look at factors that may influence intragroup differences, such as feminism (Conover, 1988), most existing research implicitly assumes gender salience is homogenous in the population. We argue that both the content of gender identity (that is, what specifically is gender identity, as opposed to sex) as well its salience should be incorporated into analyses of how gender structures political behaviour. For some, gender simply does not motivate behaviour, and the fact that salience moderates the impact of gender on behaviour requires researchers to model accordingly. Using original data from six provincial election studies, we examine a measure of gender identity salience and find that it clarifies our understanding of gender's impact on political attitudes.
Although 'populism' has become something of a buzzword in discussions about politics, it tends to be studied by country or region. This is the first book to offer a genuine cross-regional perspective on populism and its impact on democracy. By analyzing current experiences of populism in Europe and the Americas, this edited volume convincingly demonstrates that populism can be both a threat and a corrective to democracy. The contributors also demonstrate the interesting similarities between right-wing and left-wing populism: both types of populism are prone to defend a political model that is not against democracy per se, but rather at odds with liberal democracy. Populism in Europe and the Americas offers new insights into the current state of democracy from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view.
Participant attentiveness is a concern for many researchers using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). While studies comparing the attentiveness of participants on MTurk vs traditional subject pool samples provided mixed support for this concern, attention check questions and other methods of ensuring participant attention have become prolific in MTurk studies. Because MTurk is a population that learns, we hypothesized that MTurkers would be more attentive to instructions than traditional subject pool samples. In three online studies, participants from MTurk and collegiate populations participated in a task that included a measure of attentiveness to instructions (an instructional manipulation check – IMC). In all studies, MTurkers were more
attentive to instructions than college students, even on novel IMCs (studies 2 and 3), and
MTurkers showed larger effects in response to a minute text manipulation. These results have
implications for sustainable use of MTurk samples for social science research and the
conclusions drawn from research with MTurk and college subject pool samples.
Keywords: instructional manipulation checks, participant attentiveness, MTurk, college students
This article examines how migration contributes to the plurality of masculinities among Guatemalan men, particularly among migrant men and their families. I argue that migration offers an opportunity to men, both migrant and nonmigrant, to reflect on their emotional relations with distinct family members, and show how, by engaging in this reflexivity, these men also have the opportunity to vent those emotions in a way that offsets some of the negative traits associated to a hegemonic masculinity, such as being unemotional, nonnurturing, aggressive, and dispassionate. This study contributes to transnational migration studies in three ways: (1) by examining the more personal and emotional side of transnational life, (2) by examining ways in which men step away from culturally expected hegemonic masculine identity, and (3) by providing an empirical study of subaltern masculinities, particularly among transnational immigrant men. Drawing on multi-sited, in-depth interviews conducted in Guatemala and California, my research contributes to our understanding of the emotional costs of transnational migration for migrants and their families, particularly for men, by examining the interplay among gender, family, and transnational migration.
Recent and emerging technology permits psychologists today to recruit and test participants in more ways than ever before. But to what extent can behavioral scientists trust these varied methods to yield reasonably equivalent results? Here, we took a behavioral, face-to-face task and converted it to an online test. We compared the online responses of participants recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and via social media postings on Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. We also recruited a standard sample of students on a college campus and tested them in person, not via computer interface. The demographics of the three samples differed, with MTurk participants being significantly more socio-economically and ethnically diverse, yet the test results across the three samples were almost indistinguishable. We conclude that for some behavioral tests, online recruitment and testing can be a valid—and sometimes even superior—partner to in-person data collection.
This article argues that American adolescent boys become masculine through the continual repudiation of a ‘fag’ identity. Using insights from sociologists of interaction and post-structural theorists of sexuality this article demonstrates that the fag insult has multiple meanings which are primarily gendered but also sexualized and raced. This article builds on prior analyses of adolescent homophobia by (1) pointing to the limits of an argument that focuses centrally on homophobia, (2) demonstrating that the fag is not only an identity linked to homosexual boys but an identity that can temporarily adhere to heterosexual boys as well and (3) highlighting the racialized nature of this fag discourse.
As Mexico endures the far-reaching economic and social dislocations wrought by neoliberalism, many predominantly rural states in southern Mexico have witnessed an unprecedented northward exodus of working age men and women. This article argues that in response to these intense pressures to emigrate, poor men from rural Mexico do more than make instrumental calculations about migration to the border; they must negotiate masculine ideals and adopt strategic gendered practices in relation to the migration experience and the dynamic economic, social and cultural conditions of the border region. This article finds that men adopt one or a hybrid of three fluid masculine stances—traditionalist, adventurer, and breadwinner—in response to migration pressures in neoliberal Mexico.
▪ Abstract The examination of feminist research on political representation, public policy, and political institutions indicates that a shift in emphasis from the dichotomous variable of sex to the concept of gender is taking place. The shift is incomplete partly because many feminists believe both concepts are necessary to good research design. While mainstream political scientists have become more willing to use sex as a background variable in their research, they have not come to terms with notions of gender, a reluctance that may cause them to make important mistakes in their analysis of politics. Gender is a concept that suggests another major reexamination of what we think about political life. Its implications are insistent and far-reaching, offering a productive means of understanding politics.
Party identification is a central concept in studies of parties and elections. Drawing from an extensive literature linking the concept of party identification to the understanding of Mexico's electoral politics, this article explores how the Mexican experience informs the understanding of party identification in general, especially in emerging democracies. There, voters' attachments to political parties are usually seen both as essential to and a positive sign of democratic development. This study finds evidence consistent with these arguments in the Mexican case but also identifies aspects of Mexican party identification that are not so clearly supportive of democratic politics; that indeed may delay or even undermine democratization. These findings illustrate the relevance of the Mexican experience to the wider literature on parties and elections, particularly the well-documented relationship between party identifications and democratization.
Opinion research is beset by two major types of "artifactual" variance: huge amounts of overtime response instability and the common tendency for seemingly trivial changes in questionnaire form to affect the expression of attitudes. We propose a simple model that converts this anomalous "error variance" into sources of substantive insight into the nature of public opinion. The model abandons the conventional but implausible notion that most people possess opinions at the level of specificity of typical survey items--and instead assumes that most people are internally conflicted over most political issues--and that most respond to survey questions on the basis of whatever ideas are at the top of their heads at the moment of answering. Numerous empirical regularities are shown to be consistent with these assumptions.
This article introduces the specialty area of the psychology of men and masculinity to the broader community of American psychologists, focusing on research conducted using the gender role strain paradigm. The review covers the rationale for and aims of the psychology of men and masculinity and the gender role strain paradigm. It provides an extensive discussion of masculinity ideologies--the core construct in the strain paradigm--including the definition of masculinity ideology and considerations of masculinity ideology versus masculinity ideologies, traditional masculinity ideology, the measurement of masculinity ideologies, the Male Role Norms Inventory-Revised, women's and adolescent's masculinity ideologies, and conformity to masculine norms. It then takes up the 3 types of masculine gender role strain (discrepancy, dysfunction, and trauma) and the normative male alexithymia hypothesis. Finally, it considers future research directions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).
New categories are not enough rethinking the measurement of sex and gender in social surveys
- L Westbrook
- A Saperstein
- Westbrook, L.
Proving Manhood: Reflections on Men and Sexism
- T Beneke
- Beneke, T.
Political partisanship as a social identity
- L Huddy
- A Bankert
- Huddy, L.
Gender, methodology and people’s ways of knowing
- A Oakley
- Oakley, A.