Tag: boys
Researchers Threaten Guys’ Masculinity, Then Watch Them Compensate With Lies

Researchers Threaten Guys’ Masculinity, Then Watch Them Compensate With Lies

By Erik Lacitis, The Seattle Times (TNS)

SEATTLE — Pity the male of the species.

It’s so easy to threaten his masculinity, then watch him try to compensate by simply lying about himself.

“Manning Up” is a recent research paper headed by Sapna Cheryan, a University of Washington associate professor in psychology.

It begins in a rather unusual manner for an academic study — by quoting from Johnny Cash’s 1969 hit, “A Boy Named Sue.” The one that goes, “Some gal would giggle and I’d get red … ”

Then the study catalogs the reactions from guys the researchers duped into feeling masculinity-impaired through phony results from grip and personality tests.

The sampling was a bunch of college undergrads recruited at a dorm in exchange for $3 gift cards.

The students:

Lie about their height. Lie about their number of sexual partners. Lie about how handy they are. Lie about their athleticism.

For example: The “non-threatened” undergrad group said in follow-up questions that they had had an average 1.76 sexual relationships in their lives.

The “threatened” ones said they had had an average 3.12 encounters. That’s a 77 percent increase.

The study was a bit more diplomatic, not using “lie” but “exaggerating.”

The study also concluded that guys who feel masculinity-impaired also distance themselves from what they perceive as girl stuff.

Go to a basketball game? Yes. Go to a body spa? No way.

Movie and popcorn, yes. Watching a dance ensemble? Ha.

Home Depot, yes. Banana Republic? Hmmm, no thanks.

“Guys don’t relate to going shopping for clothes,” says Cheryan.

And the study showed something else: how gullible we all can be, if a test looks scientific enough.

The undergrads, all from Stanford University, which is where Cheryan was when the research was done, fell for a couple phony tests, with phony results, that made them believe their masculinity was in question.

In one test, the 36 guys were told the strength of their grip would be measured.

They squeezed on something called a Jamar Handgrip Dynamometer, which had a meter attached, kind of like on a bike pump.

“We couldn’t even read it,” Cheryan says about the meter. It didn’t matter. It just had to look science-y.

Then the guys were shown phony results.

One group was told they scored right in the middle for a masculine score.

But another group was shown a bogus bell curve that placed their grip strength similar to that of a woman.

Let that sink in, 20-year-old male undergrad.

In the other test, guys were given multiple-choice questions to supposedly measure their “masculinity compared to those of other men.”

For example, they were asked whether they’d prefer to drive a Honda Civic, Ford Taurus, Toyota Camry or Volvo C70.

The questions were designed “so that no answer was obviously masculine,” according to the paper.

One group of guys was told they had scored 73, and that the median score for a guy was 72. These guys didn’t exaggerate later.

And then there was the other group, who were told they had scored … 26.

No, no, no, 26! What?

And so the lying began from the masculinity-threatened guys.

Cheryan points out that everyone knows their height — from a driver’s license or filling out various forms. The researchers had the actual height measurements for the subjects.

The threatened guys “exaggerated their height by three-quarters of an inch,” Cheryan said. Not so with the non-threatened guys.

By the way, government figures show the average American male in his 20s is 5 feet 9.4 inches tall. Six feet and over puts you in the top 20 percentile.

The threatened guys also exaggerated their handiness by 16 percent when asked questions such as, “How handy are you with tools?”

They also exaggerated their athleticism and their aggressiveness by some 25 percent.

But you women who log onto OK Cupid are familiar with all that.

Cheryan said she does feel a bit sorry for the male species.

As other researchers have put it about masculinity, she says, “Hard won, easily lost.”

Photo: He’s actually really strong. Can deadlift 100 pounds. Brian Auer/Flickr

60 Girls And Women, 31 Boys Said To Be Abducted In Nigerian Kidnapping

60 Girls And Women, 31 Boys Said To Be Abducted In Nigerian Kidnapping

By Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times

JOHANNESBURG — At least 91 people — more than 60 women and girls, and 31 school boys — were abducted last week by suspected Boko Haram militants, two months after the terror group kidnapped more than 300 schoolgirls in northeastern Nigeria, according to witnesses.

Local media reported about 60 people were abducted in attacks on villages south of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, between Thursday and Saturday.

The attack comes as more than 270 school girls are still held by Boko Haram, more than two months after their abductions from a school in Chibok town in April. Several dozen of the girls managed to escape.

About 30 people were reported to have been killed by the extremists in the latest attack. Elderly residents fled their homes, trekking 15 miles to seek help.

Among those abducted by gunmen were women with young children and babies — a common occurrence in Borno state since last year, Nigeria’s Premium Times reported.

Boko Haram, a violent Islamist militia, fighting for an Islamic state in Nigeria, stepped up its attacks beginning five years ago and has recently launched violent raids on villages, markets, bus stations, churches and schools.

Nigeria has also seen bomb attacks on soccer fans watching world cup soccer matches at public soccer viewing venues, which have been blamed on Boko Haram.

Last week’s attacks were on Kummabza, Yaga and Dagu, in the Damboa local government area, according to witnesses cited in local media reports.

Nigerian local and federal government officials and police haven’t confirmed the reports. But Premium Times quoted an unnamed federal security official who confirmed the abductions took place, while a village councilor confirmed the kidnappings to Associated Press.

Attacks on villages in northeastern Nigeria have been occurring almost daily, with Nigeria’s army seemingly incapable of enforcing security in vast swathes of the country.

The abductions of the Chibok schoolgirls put intense international pressure on Nigeria’s government and military to recover the girls and restore security in the northeast. Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, released a chilling video in which he threatened to sell the schoolgirls as slaves.

But Nigerian authorities appear to lack the will or capacity to overcome the security crisis. Boko Haram has demanded the release of prisoners in return for surrendering the Chibok girls but Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has ruled out negotiating with terrorists. Military commanders have said a military-style rescue is impractical because it would result in the deaths of many of the hostages.

Given the deadlock, Nigerians are questioning how the girls will be released.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said earlier this month that he had been trying to negotiate the release of the girls, but had been given no support from the Nigerian government. He said it would be a “near-miracle” if all the girls were returned to their parents alive.

Obasanjo said the government should have acted immediately after the girls were taken in order to secure their release.

Nigeria’s military have been strongly criticized for failing to intervene to protect villages under attack and for failing to take steps to recover the missing girls.

Nigerian authorities have accused activists who have been campaigning for the girls’ release under the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls of being aligned with Nigeria’s opposition, and acting out of political motives, claims the activists have denied.

©afp.com / Robert MacPherson