Country-level and individual-level predictors of men's support for gender equality in 42 countries
journal contribution
posted on 2025-11-09, 23:50 authored by N Kosakowska-Berezecka, T Besta, JK Bosson, P Jurek, JA Vandello, DL Best, A Wlodarczyk, S Safdar, M Zawisza, M Żadkowska, J Sobiecki, CB Agyemang, G Akbaş, S Ammirati, Joel AndersonJoel Anderson, G Anjum, JJBR Aruta, M Ashraf, A Bakaitytė, C Bi, M Becker, M Bender, D Bërxulli, J Bosak, S Daalmans, J Dandy, S de Lemus, N Dvorianchikov, E Etchezahar, L Froehlich, A Gavreliuc, D Gavreliuc, Á Gomez, H Greijdanus, A Grigoryan, ML Hale, H Hämer, V Hoorens, PB Hutchings, DH Jensen, K Kelmendi, N Khachatryan, M Kinahan, D Kozlowski, MA Lauri, J Li, AT Maitner, A Makashvili, T Mancini, SE Martiny, JM Đorđević, E Moreno-Bella, S Moscatelli, A Bryan Moynihan, D Muller, D Ochoa, SO Adebayo, MG Pacilli, J Palacio, S Patnaik, V Pavlopoulos, I Piterová, A Puzio, J Pyrkosz-Pacyna, E Rentería-Pérez, T Rousseaux, M Sainz, M Salvati, A Samekin, E García-Sánchez, S Schindler, S Sherbaji, R Sobhie, D Sulejmanović, KE Sullivan, B Torre, CV Torres, J Ungaretti, T Valshtein, C Van Laar, J van der Noll, V Vasiutynskyi, N Vohra, AL Zapata-Calvente, R ŽukauskienėMen sometimes withdraw support for gender equality movements when their higher gender status is threatened. Here, we expand the focus of this phenomenon by examining it cross-culturally, to test if both individual- and country-level variables predict men's collective action intentions to support gender equality. We tested a model in which men's zero-sum beliefs about gender predict reduced collective action intentions via an increase in hostile sexism. Because country-level gender equality may threaten men's higher gender status, we also examined whether the path from zero-sum beliefs to collective action intentions was stronger in countries higher in gender equality. Multilevel modeling on 6,734 men from 42 countries supported the individual-level mediation model, but found no evidence of moderation by country-level gender equality. Both country-level gender equality and individual-level zero-sum thinking independently predicted reductions in men's willingness to act collectively for gender equality.<p></p>
