Men are more likely than women to harm themselves and others with firearms. Central to this problem is men's interest in owning firearms. The precarious manhood paradigm (PMP;Vandello et al., 2008) suggests that masculinity is tenuous and must be outwardly displayed. We conducted a PMP-informed experiment to test whether threats to masculinity were associated with increased interest in owning firearms. Community participants in the United States (Men n = 388, Women n = 243) completed an online "marketing survey" and were then given false personality feedback profiles. All feedback was standardized with exception of the masculinity/femininity profile. Men were randomly assigned to a masculinity threat (masculinity reported as below average; MThreat, n = 131), boost (masculinity reported as above average; MBoost, n = 129), and control (masculinity reported as average; MControl, n = 128) conditions. Women were randomly assigned to a femininity threat (n = 84), boost (n = 87), and control (n = 72) conditions (conditions were identical except women received femininity threats/boosts). Participants were then asked about their interest in owning various firearms. MThreat participants reported significantly higher interest in owning every firearm shown compared to MControl participants, and significantly more interest than MBoost participants for half of the firearms. No differences in firearm interest were evident between MBoost and MControl conditions. No differences in firearm interest were evident across all conditions in the women sample. All participants were then debriefed. Results suggest men's desire to own firearms maybe connected to masculine insecurities. Efforts should be made to socially defuse the masculinity-firearm connection. Further research implications and limitations are discussed. Public Significance StatementOur experiment showed that men whose masculinity had been threatened demonstrated more interest in owning various firearms compared to men whose masculinity was boosted or not altered. Women whose femininity was threatened did not differ from women whose femininity was boosted or not altered in terms of their firearm interest. These findings suggest that firearm ownership may be one way to prove or regain a sense of manhood.

Many of the problems linked to rigid adherence to traditional masculine role norms, such as violence and suicide, are exponentially more dangerous when a firearm is involved. Despite men being disproportionately more likely to own a firearm compared to women, however, comparatively few researchers have examined the links between masculinity and firearm ownership. Understanding the common characteristics of the typical firearm owner beyond established demographic qualities (e.g., White, male, and politically conservative) may provide important information to inform harm reduction programs revolving around reducing firearm access. Accordingly, the present study tested the relative contributions of conformity to nine masculine norms as predictors of the likelihood of owning a firearm in a sample of men and women: Emotional Control, Winning, Playboy, Violence, Self-Reliance, Risk-Taking, Power Over Women, Primacy of Work, and Heterosexual Self-Presentation. A total of 665 U.S. participants (206 men and 459 women) were recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk system. The mean age of the total sample was 20.91 (SD = 7.61), and 20% reported currently owning one or more firearms. A negative binomial regression revealed that firearm ownership was best explained by a combination of being White, a man, politically conservative, and reporting more conformity to masculine role norms emphasizing violence, risk taking, and power over women, as well as (for women only) less conformity to playboy norms. These results suggest that owning a firearm may be a behavioral manifestation of a broader traditional gender role identity. Implications for harm reduction programs centered on firearms access are discussed. Public Significance StatementUnderstanding the characteristics of firearm owners is vital to informing prevention and harm reduction efforts revolving around firearm access. The present study was (to the best of our knowledge) the first to examine the relative contributions of conformity to specific masculine role norms in relation to firearm ownership. Our results offer a sociocultural explanation for why most firearm owners are male, White, and politically conservative.

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Little is known about how men's and women's traditional masculinity ideology (TMI; patriarchal beliefs about the norms for men's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors) relates to political ideology in the United States. The present study used bifactor modeling to examine the relative contributions of seven norms of TMI, as measured by the Male Role Norms Inventory-Short Form (MRNI-SF), as predictors of conservative political ideology (CPI). Structural equation modeling in a sample of 1,136 U.S. participants (78% women) revealed that a general factor representing the shared variance among avoidance of femininity, toughness, restrictive emotionality, and importance of sex norms of TMI was positively associated with CPI. Of the two TMI norms that were relatively independent of the TMI general factor (i.e., self-reliance through mechanical skills and negativity toward sexual minorities), only the negativity toward sexual minorities norm predicted variation in CPI above and beyond the TMI general factor. The model explained 51% of the variation in CPI for men and 33% for women. Measurement and structural invariance analyses revealed that there were no significant differences between men and women in the meaning of TMI or CPI or the strength of the relationships between these variables. Consistent with prior research, men scored significantly higher than women on TMI items. Men and women reported an equal level of CPI. These results suggest that men's and women's CPI may share common variance with two core aspects of TMI: antifemininity and negative attitudes toward sexual minorities. Public Significance StatementPolitical ideology is an important aspect of American life. Several scholars have speculated that conservative political ideology (CPI) may be aligned with traditional masculinity ideology (TMI), but few researchers have tested this assertion. Our results suggest that some men's and women's TMI and CPI may be explained via a confluence of antifemininity and antisexual minority beliefs. Additionally, men and women appear to be more similar than different with respect to the links between TMI and CPI.

The construct of masculine depression is believed to be evident when men express their depressive symptomology via externalizing problems (e.g., anger, substance use, and compulsive overworking) rather than or in addition to traditional, internalizing expression of depression (e.g., sadness, hopelessness, and feeling helpless). We examined whether distinct subgroups of men potentially at risk for depression could be identified based on their self-reported levels of internalizing and externalizing depressive symptomology. Latent profile analysis (LPA) using traditional (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 [PHQ-9]) and masculine (Masculine Depression Scale [MDS]) self-report measures of depression in an online sample of 910 male Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers in the United States revealed support for a four-class solution: Low Internalizing–Low Externalizing (LI–LE; n = 519), High Internalizing–Moderate Externalizing (HI–ME; n = 68), High Internalizing–High Externalizing (HI–HE; n = 120), and Moderate Internalizing–Moderate Externalizing (MI–ME; n = 209). The LPA indicators and responses to auxiliary measures of traditional masculinity ideology, conformity to masculine role norms, and male depression risk suggested the HI–HE class best represented a masculine depression subtype, whereas the HI–ME class best represented a traditional expression of depression. Consistent with expectations, men in the HI–HE class reported the greatest levels of traditional masculinity ideology and higher levels of male depression risk. However, men in this class reported lower conformity to emotional control and self-reliance masculine norms than men in the HI–ME class. These results highlight the importance of a person-centric perspective of masculine depression but raise questions regarding the conceptualization of the construct in relation to traditional masculine role norms.