Presentation Type
Poster
Presentation Type
Submission
Keywords
masculinity, pain tolerance, political orientation, pain threshold, gender norms
Department
Psychology
Major
Psychology
Abstract
This experimental study aimed to explore whether political orientation might moderate the relationship between threatened masculinity and pain tolerance among 128 college men. Research has shown that the manipulation of gender stereotypes and how it affects pain tolerance in men has yielded mixed results. We administered a bogus gender knowledge test with fake feedback placing participants into either a masculinity threatening condition or masculinity affirming condition. This was followed by a pain tolerance test using a pressure algometer, where pain tolerance, pain threshold, perceived unpleasantness, and perceived painfulness were recorded. We hypothesized that men in the threatened masculinity condition would have higher pain tolerance than men in the masculinity affirming condition. Further, we hypothesized that political orientation would moderate the effect of threatened masculinity on pain tolerance; specifically, we expected politically conservative men would be more affected by threatened masculinity than politically liberal men. None of our preregistered hypotheses specific to pain tolerance were supported, likely due to a ceiling effect on the pain tolerance test. We conducted exploratory analyses on pain threshold, and political orientation was a significant moderator. Specifically, among politically liberal men, the masculinity threat condition was associated with a lower pain threshold than the masculinity affirming condition. Among men of average and high conservatism, there was no link between masculinity threat and pain threshold. These findings may offer explanations for how liberal men may not value masculinity norms as much as their conservative counterparts, and thus have less motivation to uphold such norms.
Faculty Mentor
Dr. Randy Corpuz
Funding Source or Research Program
Not Identified
Location
Waves Cafeteria
Start Date
10-4-2026 1:00 PM
End Date
10-4-2026 2:00 PM
The Role of Political Orientation in the Relationship between Masculinity Threat and Pain
Waves Cafeteria
This experimental study aimed to explore whether political orientation might moderate the relationship between threatened masculinity and pain tolerance among 128 college men. Research has shown that the manipulation of gender stereotypes and how it affects pain tolerance in men has yielded mixed results. We administered a bogus gender knowledge test with fake feedback placing participants into either a masculinity threatening condition or masculinity affirming condition. This was followed by a pain tolerance test using a pressure algometer, where pain tolerance, pain threshold, perceived unpleasantness, and perceived painfulness were recorded. We hypothesized that men in the threatened masculinity condition would have higher pain tolerance than men in the masculinity affirming condition. Further, we hypothesized that political orientation would moderate the effect of threatened masculinity on pain tolerance; specifically, we expected politically conservative men would be more affected by threatened masculinity than politically liberal men. None of our preregistered hypotheses specific to pain tolerance were supported, likely due to a ceiling effect on the pain tolerance test. We conducted exploratory analyses on pain threshold, and political orientation was a significant moderator. Specifically, among politically liberal men, the masculinity threat condition was associated with a lower pain threshold than the masculinity affirming condition. Among men of average and high conservatism, there was no link between masculinity threat and pain threshold. These findings may offer explanations for how liberal men may not value masculinity norms as much as their conservative counterparts, and thus have less motivation to uphold such norms.
Comments
Research program was Pepperdine's Honor Psychology Research Program.