If a car salesman wants to sell a honkin' SUV to a male customer, he only needs to question his customer's masculinity to make the sale. According to a new study done by researchers at Cornell University, men who feel that their masculinity is threatened are more likely to buy an SUV over other cars in order to overcompensate for their insecurity.
Researchers of the study administered gender identification surveys where one group of men was given feedback that informed the men they exhibited weak male characteristics, while another group was told they demonstrated strong ones. Rob Willer, the lead researcher, discovered the obvious between the two groups of men:
...if you made men more insecure about their masculinity, they displayed more homophobic attitudes, tended to support the Iraq War more and would be more willing to purchase an SUV over another type of vehicle...
My husband rides a bike to work...
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