Man Up to Go Green: Masculine Identification Shapes Whether Identity Threats Drive Men Toward or Away from Pro-Environmental Behavior

Masculinity is a precarious and highly valued social identity. Threatening masculinity leads to a range of compensatory responses to recover manhood, which may also impact men’s engagement in sustainable behaviors. Men might embrace or avoid pro-environmentalism when a masculine or feminine gender identity is signaled. The current research applied gender socialization and identity maintenance to the context of environmentalism across two studies. Study 1 ( N = 394) assessed if pro-environmental behaviors, specifically those aligned with masculine norms, would be embraced as a recovery strategy in response to a general masculinity threat. Results showed an overall pattern of men with higher masculine identification distancing from all pro-environmental behaviors, demonstrating that even sustainable behaviors that align with masculine norms may have underlying feminine associations. Study 2 ( N = 890) examined whether a masculinity threat or affirmation would differentially impact engagement in masculine and feminine sustainable behaviors. Results showed that higher masculine identification increased willingness to engage in pro-environmental behaviors after a threat, and men at low levels of identification were bolstered by a masculinity affirmation. These results demonstrate that participants may embrace sustainability when it is temporarily reframed within masculine domain boundaries. This research provides insight into the environmentalism gender gap and highlights the importance of masculine identification in how men experience and recover from identity threats in sustainable contexts.