Framing Effects on Support for Men's Issues: A Survey Experiment on College Students' Attitudes
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Date
2024
Authors
Collins-Burke, Drew
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Men are generally attaining worse education outcomes than other gender groups and are more likely to commit suicide. Richard Reeves, formerly of the Brookings Institution and now President of the American Institute for Boys and Men (AIBM) referred to this—among other disparities disfavoring men—in early 2023 as being indicative of “male inequality”; however, some may suspect a cultural stigma with this phrase (Reeves, 2023a)This survey experiment evaluates the impact of the phrase “male inequality” on support for men’s issues, while using accompanying graphs of high school GPAs, bachelor’s degree attainment and suicide rates. I find there is support for men’s issues regardless of treatment and multiple statistically significant treatment effects that generally display the phrase “male inequality” leads to a reduction in support, especially for women and Democrats. Also, Republicans being shown treatment of just the graphs of male disparities—without the phrase—leads to a statistically significant 31.9% increase in support for feminist policies. This thesis indicates men’s issues may receive majority support from college students, that the phrase “male inequality” harms support for male policy issues for Democrats and women, and that Republicans may be more likely to support feminist policies when they feel male issues are being discussed.
Description
68 pages
Keywords
Men, Education, Males, Survey experiment, Framing