Christian Tröster: "Consequences of Masculinity-Critical Messages for Men’s Well-Being’"

Men face significant challenges, including higher rates of suicide, substance abuse, and incarceration. Despite these realities, critical attitudes towards traditional masculinity are prevalent. We examine how these masculinity-critical attitudes affect men, proposing that those who internalize left-wing authoritarian (LWA) beliefs may be particularly vulnerable to their impact. Since LWA involves a desire to topple conventional social hierarchies, we propose that men who score high in LWA may adopt masculinity-critical attitudes in response to the prevalent view that Western society is male-dominated and patriarchal. We seek to understand whether LWA predicts increased exposure to and acceptance of masculinity-critical attitudes and whether this, in turn, affects well-being outcomes for these individuals. We found support for our hypothesized causal chain of mediation through eight studies, which relied exclusively on male participants (total N = 2,801) and employed experimental, longitudinal, and cross-sectional designs. Specifically, men higher in LWA (but not right-wing authoritarianism) were more likely to be exposed to masculinity-critical messages, to agree with these messages, and consequently experience reduced well-being based on several indicators, including positive and negative affect, depressive symptoms, collective self-esteem, and self-stigmatization.  We hope to encourage greater scholarly attention to the psychological experiences of men in contemporary cultural contexts, particularly in response to masculinity-critical discourse.

Prof. Christian Tröster, PhD is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at the KLU. Chris received his bachelor's and master's degree in sociology from the University of Groningen (NL) and his PhD from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL). He has been a visiting scholar at several universities, such as Singapore Management University (SMU), the University of British Columbia (UBC), and Victoria University of Wellington (NZ). He served on the editorial board of The Leadership Quarterly and is currently associate editor of the Academy of Management Journal.

Prof. Dr. Christian Tröster uses experiments and surveys to study topics in organizational behavior such as leadership, social networks, and teams. His work has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of International Business Studies, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, etc.

He teaches how to be more effective when dealing with people from other cultures (intercultural communication) and how to better understand what motivates people in organizations (leadership and organizational behavior). He teaches both students and executives in top-ranked programs and delivers training for companies around the globe.