Mentor: Allison Farrell, Ph.D.

Successful modern relationships require more emotional vulnerability, time, and effort (Finkel et al., 2015). The processes that lead to successful modern relationships run counter to traditional masculine norms of toughness and emotional invulnerability (Chu et al., 2005). This disconnect creates a situation where single men may not feel equipped to meet the demands of modern relationships and perceive modern expectations as an avenue for rejection. The research examines this possibility. We recruited 352 single, heterosexual men and randomly assigned them to read one of two articles. In one article, they read about modern dating expectations of emotional vulnerability and engagement (threat condition). In the other article, they read about a neutral topic (control condition). Then participants saw three dating profiles reflecting either only modern expectations, only traditional expectations, or only neutral expectations. We hypothesized that for men in the threat condition who hold traditional masculine beliefs, they will anticipate rejection from the modern profile relative to the other profiles and lash out at the rejection threat by preemptively rejecting the woman in the profile. Our results did not find significant 2x3 ANOVA for rejection concerns or intentions. However when we ran a moderation analysis was run within each profile condition with the threat condition predicting rejection concerns and intentions, we found that less traditionally masculine men in the threat condition had higher rejection concerns and higher rejection intentions.

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