Finding:Men routinely incorporate red meat to preempt the negative emotional states caused by threats to masculinity.
Hypothesis
Given the ubiquitous nature of potential threats to masculinity, meat is perhaps routinely used to preempt potential challenges to manhood. In a food consumption context men can respond by ramping up their meat consumption to symbolically restore a challenged masculine self. We expect the negative emotions triggered by masculinity threat to persist if sufficient symbolic resources are not available (i.e., no meat). More formally:
H: In a food consumption context, following a threat to masculinity (vs. non-threat) the availability of red meat (vs. vegetables) will lower men’s anxiety levels.
Participants and design
A total of 140 male participants with a mean age of 30 years living in the United States were recruited to participate in a survey, purportedly to evaluate an online pizza ordering system. The experimental setup follows a 2 (masculinity threat: threat vs. non‑threat) x 2 (masculinity restoration: meat‑only pizza vs. veggie‑only pizza) between-subjects design.
Procedure
Participants completed the gender knowledge questionnaire, and were randomly assigned to either the threat or non‑threat condition by receiving manipulated feedback. They then engaged with an online pizza ordering task, similar to those used by delivery services. To customize their pizzas, participants used sliders in an online interface to indicate the amount of each ingredient they would put on the pizza that they were intending to order for themselves. The masculinity restoration condition was manipulated by assigning participants randomly to one of two pretested sets of available pizza toppings. One topping set had only red meat toppings available (allowing masculine identity restoration: steak, meatballs, bacon, and pepperoni), while the other set only had vegetable toppings available (inhibiting masculine identity restoration: eggplant, spinach, broccoli and artichoke hearts). Cheese and tomato sauce were displayed in both conditions in order to make the task more convincing. Subsequently, anxiety levels were measured.
Results
Following masculinity threat, men who were able to order a meat pizza felt much less anxious compared to those who could only order veggie pizza. Anxiety levels of non‑threatened men were low regardless of whether meat or veggie pizza was available for order.
Anxiety levels following masculine identity threat and subsequent availability of veggie‑only or meat‑only pizza toppings. Error bars represent standard error of the mean (N=140, male).
Discussion
These results support the contention that men’s anxiety levels were not merely elevated due to the absence of the normative meat dish, but because meat is routinely available to fortify masculine status when it is threatened, thereby meat counteracts the stress stemming from any potential failure to express masculinity. The findings show that the incorporation of meat successfully restores masculinity as indicated by decreased anxiety. The mere act of eating does not reduce the stress of masculine identity threat; meat must be ordered.
Banner photo by Michał Kubalczyk, downloaded from unsplash.com
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