Why guys who post a lot on social media are seen as less manly

WASHINGTON - July 12, 2023 - PRLog -- By: Andrew Edelblum, University of Dayton, Nathan B. Warren, BI Norwegian Business School

For better or worse, much of life is categorized along gendered lines: Clothing stores have sections for men and women, certain foods are considered more manly or more feminine, and even drinks can take on a gendered sheen ("manmosa," anyone?).

Our newly published research finds that even social media is a canvas for rigid gender stereotyping.

Specifically, we show that men who post often on social media are seen as feminine, a phenomenon we refer to as the "frequent-posting femininity stereotype." We observed this bias in four experiments featuring over 1,300 respondents from the U.S. and U.K.

To post is to be seen as unmanly!

As consumer behavior researchers, we have long been interested in the contradictions, peculiarities and restrictions associated with masculinity.

These dynamics have far-reaching implications in the world of marketing. It is widely known, for example, that Coke Zero was created as an alternative to Diet Coke, a product that men notoriously shied away from for its perceived ties to women who wanted to lose weight. There's even a tendency for people to think it is unmanly to sleep more, because needing rest is connected to being weak and vulnerable.

We thought about how some of these notions might come into play on social media. Polling data suggests that men and women use social media platforms in very different ways: For example, men tend to be on fewer platforms overall and don't post as often as women on apps like Instagram.

We wondered if gender biases had anything to do with why. Are men judged harshly when they share on social media?

To test this question, we ran a series of experiments in which respondents were asked to evaluate a "normal, average, ordinary" man who either frequently or rarely posts on social media. To provide a more concrete picture, we described the man as someone who posts online for fun and has a moderate number of followers.

Respondents consistently rated the man as more feminine when he was described as a frequent social media poster. This was true regardless of assumptions made about the man's age, education, wealth and preferred social media platform.

http://youtu.be/M9V9qCcRTBw



https://theconversation.com/why-guys-who-post-a-lot-on-so...