Date of Award

5-2026

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Conor O'Dea

Second Advisor

Joel Martin

Abstract

Masculine Honor Ideology, often endorsed by men, emphasizes the importance of maintaining status and reputation from any perceived threats, usually through aggression and confrontation. A possible justification for this ideology is Just World Beliefs, the trust that society is fair and righteous, even if it perpetuates inequality. Conversely, feminism at its core aims to dismantle all systems and beliefs that perpetuate gender inequality, posing a threat to masculine honor and Just World Beliefs. This type of threat often elicits hostility from men high in honor, especially when they exhibit hostile attribution bias. Those who display this bias may perceive ambiguous situations or interactions as threatening, aggressive, or hostile. Given this, we examined how Masculine Honor Ideology and Just World Beliefs contribute to hostility toward feminism from men due to perceived threat to their masculinity. We found that men higher in Masculine Honor Ideology and Just World Beliefs were more likely to view the feminist messaging as hostile, especially when it came from a female speaker, and when the message was more direct. These participants exhibited greater sexist attitudes, lower overall agreement with the speaker, displayed more negativity toward feminists and feminism, and less likely to self-identify as a feminist. Our outcomes highlight the significance of understanding the root of hostility toward women and feminists. We want to encourage men to get involved in the conversation as allies without putting extra responsibility on women. This is evident in our findings, where men high in masculine honor agreed more with the feminist messaging delivered by a male speaker than a female speaker with the same exact message.

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