Abstract
Prior research has suggested that women are relatively nonreactive to femininity threats. Given this, research on gender threats over the last decade has functioned under the premise that men almost exclusively account for reactivity to gender threats and, oftentimes, subsequent aggression. Interestingly, recent work has suggested otherwise, primarily that women from cultures of honor, who tend to place strong emphasis on their social reputations, may be a subgroup who responds similarly to men in regard to gender identity threats. A sample of 305 women on MTurk answered questions about their endorsement of feminine honor ideology, then were randomly assigned to receive different types of false feedback about their femininity (femininity threat, control condition, or femininity boost). Results across eight separate dependent variables showed that women, in general, showed threat reactivity in regard to four of the eight outcomes, although honor endorsing women displayed signs of threat reactivity across all eight outcomes. Furthermore, when threatened, honor endorsing women showed stronger support for forms of aggressive behavior towards the false feedback providers (i.e. seeking out the firing of the survey creators, wanting to physically fight the survey creators, insulting the survey creators). These findings suggest that there is considerable variability in women’s responses to femininity threats, especially if such threats are administered to women high in feminine honor concerns. Findings are discussed in the context of intimate relationships and suggest the importance of incorporating feminine honor concepts into future work on gender identity threats.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
References
Allen, J. J., Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2018). The general aggression model. Current Opinion in Psychology, 19, 75–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.03.034.
Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2002). Human aggression. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 27–51. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135231.
Anderson, C. A., & Carnagey, N. L. (2009). Causal effects of violent sports video games on aggression: Is it competitiveness or violent content? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(4), 731–739. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.04.019.
Andraszczyk, W., & Gierczyk, M. (2017). Physical and relational aggression. An introduction to gender differentiation. Studia Edukacyjne, 46(1), 225–234. https://doi.org/10.14746/se.2017.46.14.
Awwad, A. M. (2011). Virginity control and gender-based violence in Turkey: Social constructionism of patriarchy, masculinity, and sexual purity. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 1(15), 105–110.
Barnes, C. D., Brown, R. P., Lenes, J., Bosson, J., & Carvallo, M. (2014). My country, my self: Honor, identity, and defensive responses to national threats. Self and Identity, 13(6), 638–662. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2014.892529
Benard, S. (2013). Reputation systems, aggression, and deterrence in social interaction. Social Science Research, 42(1), 230–245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.09.004.
Björkqvist, K. (2018). Gender differences in aggression. Current Opinion in Psychology, 19, 39–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.03.030.
Bollen, K. A. (2002). Latent variables in psychology and the social sciences. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 605–634. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135239.
Bond, M. H. (2004). Culture and aggression—from context to coercion. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8(1), 62–78. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0801_3.
Bosson, J. K., & Vandello, J. A. (2011). Precarious manhood and its links to action and aggression. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(2), 82–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411402669.
Bosson, J. K., & Vandello, J. A. (2013). Manhood, womanhood, and the importance of context: A reply to commentaries. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 14(2), 125–128. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032437.
Brown, R. P. (2016). Honor bound: How a cultural ideal has shaped the american psyche. Oxford University Press.
Buss, A. H., & Perry, M. (1992). The aggression questionnaire. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(3), 452–459.
Chalman, S. T., O'Dea, C. J., Renfroe, J., & Saucier, D. A. (2021). It's a man's job? An investigation of shifting (masculine) honor expectations for men and women. Personality and Individual Differences, 168, 110259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110259
Cheryan, S., Cameron, J. S., Katagiri, Z., & Monin, B. (2015). Threatened men compensate by disavowing feminine preferences and embracing masculine attributes. Social Psychology, 46(4), 218–227. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000239.
Chrisler, J. C. (2013). Womanhood is not as easy as it seems: Femininity requires both achievement and restraint. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 14(2), 117–120. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031005.
Cohen, D., Nisbett, R. E., Bowdle, B. F., & Schwarz, N. (1996). Insult, aggression, and the southern culture of honor: An” experimental ethnography. Journal of personality and social psychology, 70(5), 945–960. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.5.945.
Cohn, A., & Zeichner, A. (2006). Effects of Masculine identity and gender role stress on Aggression in Men. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 7(4), 179–190. https://doi.org/10.1037/1524-9220.7.4.179.
Copenhaver, M. M., Lash, S. J., & Eisler, R. M. (2000). Masculine gender-role stress, anger, and male intimate abusiveness: Implications for men’s relationships. Sex Roles, 42, 405–414.
de Vieira, C., & Pereira, C. R. (2021). The effect of gender and male distinctiveness threat on prejudice against homosexuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 121(6), 1241–1257. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000269.
Dietrich, D. M., & Schuett, J. M. (2013). Culture of honor and attitudes toward intimate partner violence in Latinos. Sage Open, 3(2), 2158244013489685. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244013489685.
Efthim, P. W., Kenny, M. E., & Mahalik, J. R. (2001). Gender role stress in relation to shame, guilt, and externalization. Journal of Counseling & Development, 79(4), 430–438. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2001.tb01990.x.
Fischer, P., Haslam, S. A., & Smith, L. (2010). If you wrong us, shall we not revenge?” Social identity salience moderates support for retaliation in response to collective threat. Group Dynamics: Theory Research and Practice, 14(2), 143–150. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017970.
Foster, S., Bock, J. E., Carvallo, M., Pollet, C. L., & Stern, W. (2022). Honor-endorsing women and relational aggression: Evidence for the presence of feminine aggression norms in southern US women. Personality and Individual Differences, 194, 111668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2022.111668.
Foster, S., Carvallo, M., Lee, J., Fisher, R., & Traxler, H. (2021a). An implication of impurity: The impact of feminine honor on human papillomavirus (HPV) screenings and the decision to authorize daughter’s HPV vaccinations. Stigma and Health, 6(2), 216–227. https://doi.org/10.1037/sah0000230.
Foster, S., Carvallo, M., Song, H., Lee, J., & Lee, J. (2021b). When culture and health collide: Feminine honor endorsement and attitudes toward catch-up HPV vaccinations in college women. Journal of American College Health, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2021.1935970.
Günsoy, C., Joo, M., Cross, S. E., Uskul, A. K., Gul, P., Wasti, S. A., Yegin, A. The influence of honor threats on goal delay and goal derailment: A comparison of Turkey, Southern US, and, & Northern, U. S. (2020). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 88, 103974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2020.103974.
Graham, K., Wells, S., & Jelley, J. (2002). The social context of physical aggression among adults. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 17(1), 64–83. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260502017001005.
Gul, P., Cross, S. E., & Uskul, A. K. (2021). Implications of culture of honor theory and research for practitioners and prevention researchers. American Psychologist, 76(3), 502–515. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000653.
Harrington, A. G., Overall, N. C., & Cross, E. J. (2021). Masculine gender role stress, low relationship power, and aggression toward intimate partners. Psychology of Men & Masculinities, 22(1), 48–62. https://doi.org/10.1037/men0000262.
Hayes, A. F. (2017). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford Publications.
Himmelstein, M. S., Kramer, B. L., & Springer, K. W. (2019). Stress in strong convictions: Precarious manhood beliefs moderate cortisol reactivity to masculinity threats. Psychology of Men & Masculinities, 20(4), 491–502. https://doi.org/10.1037/men0000187.
Hosie, J., Gilbert, F., Simpson, K., & Daffern, M. (2014). An examination of the relationship between personality and aggression using the general aggression and five factor models. Aggressive Behavior, 40(2), 189–196. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21510.
Jin, Y., Sun, C., Wu, J., An, J., & Li, J. (2021). Precarious manhood and its effects on aggression: The role of cultural script. Journal of interpersonal violence, 36(9–10), NP5521–NP5544.
Kuo, F. E., & Sullivan, W. C. (2001). Aggression and violence in the inner city: Effects of environment via mental fatigue. Environment and Behavior, 33(4), 543–571. https://doi.org/10.1177/00139160121973124.
Law, D. M., Shapka, J. D., Domene, J. F., & Gagné, M. H. (2012). Are cyberbullies really bullies? An investigation of reactive and proactive online aggression. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(2), 664–672. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.11.013.
Litman, L., Robinson, J., & Abberbock, T. (2017). TurkPrime.com: A versatile crowdsourcing data acquisition platform for the behavioral sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 49(2), 433–442. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-016-0727-z
Martz, D. M., Handley, K. B., & Eisler, R. M. (1995). The relationship between feminine gender role stress, body image, and eating disorders. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 19(4), 493–508. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1995.tb00088.x.
McGregor, I., Hayes, J., & Prentice, M. (2015). Motivation for aggressive religious radicalization: Goal regulation theory and a personality× threat× affordance hypothesis. Frontiers in Psychology, 6(1), 1325. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01325.
Miles-Novelo, A., & Anderson, C. A. (2019). Climate change and psychology: Effects of rapid global warming on violence and aggression. Current Climate Change Reports, 5(1), 36–46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-019-00121-2.
Mosquera, P. M. R. (2011). Masculine and feminine honor codes. Revista de Psicología Social, 26(1), 63–72. https://doi.org/10.1174/021347411794078499.
Mosquera, P. M. R., Manstead, A. S., & Fischer, A. H. (2000). The role of honor-related values in the elicitation, experience, and communication of pride, shame, and anger: Spain and the Netherlands compared. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(7), 833–844. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167200269008.
Mosquera, P. M. R., Manstead, A. S., & Fischer, A. H. (2002). Honor in the Mediterranean and northern Europe. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 33(1), 16–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022102033001002.
O’Dea, C. J., Jardin, E., & Saucier, D. A. (2022). The masculinity-based model of aggressive retaliation in Society (MARS). Psychology of Men & Masculinities, 23(2), 160–172. https://doi.org/10.1037/men0000391.
Parrott, D. J. (2009). Aggression toward gay men as gender role enforcement: Effects of male role norms, sexual prejudice, and masculine gender role stress. Journal of Personality, 77(4), 1137–1166. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00577.x.
Purdie-Vaughns, V., Steele, C. M., Davies, P. G., Ditlmann, R., & Crosby, J. R. (2008). Social identity contingencies: How diversity cues signal threat or safety for African Americans in mainstream institutions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(4), 615–630. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.94.4.615.
Rudman, L. A., Dohn, M. C., & Fairchild, K. (2007). Implicit self-esteem compensation: Automatic threat defense. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(5), 798–813. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.5.798.
Somech, L. Y., & Elizur, Y. (2012). Anxiety/depression and hostility/suspiciousness in adolescent boys: Testing adherence to honor code as mediator of callousness and attachment insecurity. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 22(1), 89–99. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2011.00745.x.
Sommet, N., Weissman, D. L., Cheutin, N., & Elliot, A. J. (2022). How many participants do I need to test an interaction? Conducting an appropriate power analysis and achieving sufficient power to detect an interaction. Retrieved from https://intxpower.com/?A=0.3&B=0.25&C=1&D=0.3&targetPower=80&algo=betweenTwoTailedFactorial.
Uskul, A. K., & Cross, S. E. (2020). Socio-ecological roots of cultures of honor. Current Opinion in Psychology, 32, 177–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.11.001.
Valved, T., Kosakowska-Berezecka, N., Besta, T., & Martiny, S. E. (2021). Gender belief systems through the lens of culture—differences in precarious manhood beliefs and reactions to masculinity threat in Poland and Norway. Psychology of Men & Masculinities, 22(2), 265–276. https://doi.org/10.1037/men0000331.
Vandello, J. A., & Bosson, J. K. (2013). Hard won and easily lost: A review and synthesis of theory and research on precarious manhood. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 14(2), 101–113. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029826.
Vandello, J. A., Bosson, J. K., Cohen, D., Burnaford, R. M., & Weaver, J. R. (2008). Precarious manhood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(6), 1325–1339. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012453.
Vandello, J. A., & Cohen, D. (2003). Male honor and female fidelity: Implicit cultural scripts that perpetuate domestic violence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(5), 997–1010. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.5.997.
Wright, J. D., Agterberg, S., & Esses, V. M. (2020). Aggression in response to threatening individuals’ religious versus national identity in a live instant messaging paradigm. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 30(4), 265–274. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2020.17742.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Jazzmine Cross for her contributions to the current article.
Funding
No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Stephen Foster: Conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing-original draft, writing-review & editing, Jarrod Bock: Conceptualization, methodology, writing-review & editing.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
All participants completed informed consent documents prior to completing the study, and the study received approval from an Institutional Review Board.
Consent for publication
All authors agree to consent to submit this article for publication.
Competing interests
The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Human and animal ethics
The current study adhered to all ethical principles for human subjects research as set out by the APA.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Foster, S.D., Bock, J.E. Feminine honor concerns, reactivity to femininity threats, and aggression in U.S. women. Curr Psychol 43, 6725–6738 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04875-9
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04875-9