Examining the Effect of Threatened Masculinity on Gun Violence

Abstract

Gun violence is considered a national epidemic in the United States. In 2020, approximately 45,000 people were killed due to firearm-related injuries in the United States alone. However, research has struggled to identify a comprehensive list of risk factors associated with gun violence. One such risk factor could be threatened masculinity. This study aims to examine the effect of threatened masculinity on gun violence. As such a 2 (intervention x 3 (time) mixed design will be used. Each participant will be given a baseline assessment of their masculinity, using the Masculinity Contingency Scale. Using a variation of the hot sauce paradigm, participants will be asked to answer the Heinz Dilemma, and told that another participant will read their response, and then give the first participant an audio recording about what they think of their response. At this point, participants will be randomly assigned to one of two conditions. They will either have their masculinity threatened or be assigned to a control group. Following this, participants will be asked to play a game involving an online voodoo doll where they will be asked to pretend the voodoo doll is the person from the recording, and to shoot the voodoo doll. It is predicted that those in the experimental group will shoot the voodoo doll more than the control group.