text: a journal in stereo, being a record of movies, music, baseball, language, remembrance of things past, life in Singapore and Washington DC.
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  August 04, 2005
  Some findings from the American Sociological Association's 100th annual meeting that might explain the behaviour that I tend to lump under "stupid macho bullshit":
  "I found that if you made men more insecure about their masculinity, they displayed more homophobic attitudes, tended to support the Iraq war more and would be more willing to purchase an SUV over another type of vehicle," said Robb Willer, a sociology doctoral candidate at Cornell. Willer is presenting his findings Aug. 15 at the American Sociological Association's 100th annual meeting in Philadelphia.
  "Masculine overcompensation is the idea that men who are insecure about their masculinity will behave in an extremely masculine way as compensation. I wanted to test this idea and also explore whether overcompensation could help explain some attitudes like support for war and animosity to homosexuals," Willer said.
  (Link via Neil)
  Well, of course, support for war can stem from a variety of reasons including the rational (Michael Walzer's writings on just war theory comes to mind), not just pure aggro. But it's interesting to see that "Willer verified that support for the Iraq War, homophobia and interest in purchasing an SUV were all considered masculine by study participants".
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