Manfluencers and Young Men’s Misogynistic Attitudes: The Role of Perceived Threats to Men’s Status

Abstract

Misogynistic attitudes have surged in the past few years and the “manosphere” – an online milieu promoting toxic and rigid masculinity norms – is often seen as an arena for spreading such ideas. Within the manosphere, manfluencers (i.e., male influencers who espouse misogynistic content and beliefs) are known for trying to persuade men to view women and feminism as a threat to their masculinity and status as men. In this article, we examine how perceived threats to masculine identity as presented by manfluencers affect the formation of young men’s attitudes towards women. In an original survey (N = 2857) with Swedish men, we found that young men who follow more manfluencers are more likely to dehumanize women. In two experiments (N = 597, 630), we presented potentially threatening content from a fictive manfluencer to a group of participants and found that young men exposed to such content were more mistrustful of women and misogynistic, especially if they felt like they had been rejected by women in the past. The results highlight the importance of how social media influencers may increase misogyny among young men. This research has important implications for policymakers and practitioners, who should be made aware of the role manfluencers have in the formation of attitudes toward gender equality.