Recent research has highlighted young men’s high levels of exposure to content promoting restrictive norms of “digital masculinity,” a related male “loneliness epidemic,” and an increasing gender gap in political ideology and voting behavior among Gen Z in multiple countries, with young men increasingly drawn to support right-wing parties. Do media narratives highlighting these trends affect perceptions of society’s support for gender equality and narratives about social progress? Do they affect men’s willingness to take actions that demonstrate pro-equality attitudes? In a pre-registered survey experiment, we investigate these questions among college students at a flagship university in a “purple” U.S. state, with plans to extend and replicate the analysis among a convenience sample of adult men ages 18-30 and a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults.
