#Fragilemasculinity: The Roles of Masculinity Threat and Anonymity in Men’s Endorsement and Perpetration of Online Gender Harassment by Jennifer D. Rubin A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Psychology and Women's Studies) in the University of Michigan 2019 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Terri D. Conley, Chair Associate Professor Sonya Dal Cin Professor Nicole Ellison Associate Professor Sara I. McClelland Jennifer Rubin [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6649-6606 © Jennifer D. Rubin 2019 DEDICATION To Dahlia Josephine I’ve loved you since before you were born. To Matthew My unwavering support and love. To Debbie and Don Rubin Without whom none of my success would be possible. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have received encouragement, mentorship, and support from a community of friends and scholars. Thank you to the IDEAL family for providing me guidance during my undergraduate years at UC Berkeley. The support I received from Cedric Brown, Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales, and Mitch and Frida Kapor helped me realize my dream of pursing a graduate degree. I would also like to thank Drs. Mel Chen and Barbara Barnes for nurturing my commitment to Gender and Women’s Studies as critical to undergraduate education. A big thank you to Dr. David Frost for his mentorship and guidance during my time at San Francisco State University. My dissertation committee of Drs. Terri Conley, Sara McClelland, Sonya Dal Cin, and Nicole Ellison have provided me with invaluable suggestions that strengthened this research and future projects. And a very special thank you to Dr. Terri Conley for being my springboard for research ideas and my unwavering support. I am so happy to have you as a friend and mentor. I would like to acknowledge the friendships I have built while at San Francisco State and University of Michigan. Thank you to the following people: Sara Chadwick, Jes Matsick, Logan Casey, Danielle Shapiro, Jesse Chandler, Rita Seabrook, Aayat Ali, Jad Raad, Ali Ziegler, Verónica Rabelo, Katy Holland, and Cat Forrester. My outstanding research assistants have made this dissertation possible: Rachel Cultice, Mary Kruk, Shoshana Kaplan, Rizzo Nichols, Morgan Perry, Charles Vazquez, and Katherine Robbins. I am fully indebted to the Personality and Social Contexts Psychology area, Gender and Feminist Psychology area, and the Women’s Studies Department for always listening and giving me words of encouragement. iii I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Joanne Bailey, teacher and mentor extraordinaire. Your passionate approach to teaching Perspectives in Women’s Health is contagious. And thank you for opening your home in Fall 2017 so I could complete data collection for my dissertation. I look back fondly on our conversations after work and sharing a meal together. Thank you to my partner, Matthew Snyder. You moved across the country, leaving our rent-controlled apartment in San Francisco, so I could pursue a PhD at Michigan. You have been my biggest support, and I love you dearly. Six years later, we are almost done with graduate school. What a journey it has been! Finally, thank you to Debbie and Don Rubin, without whom none of my success would be possible. Although both of you never had the opportunity to attend college, you taught me that education was key to success. One of Don’s final wishes before his death was that I pursue higher education— and look how far I’ve come, Dad. I share this tremendous accomplishment with both of you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION............................................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................................................... iii LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. vii LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................viii LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................................. x ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. xi CHAPTER 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 Psychological Approaches to Masculinities and Manhood ................................................................... 4 Gender and Online Contexts .............................................................................................................. 11 Theoretical Approaches to Sociotechnical Affordances ...................................................................... 18 Current Research ............................................................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER 2 Predictors of Competency Ratings and Harassment Endorsement on Twitter ................................................................................................................................................. 26 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 26 Hypotheses ........................................................................................................................................ 28 Method .............................................................................................................................................. 29 Participants ................................................................................................................................................. 29 Procedure .................................................................................................................................................... 30 Pretesting Twitter Profiles and Inflammatory Tweets ................................................................................... 32 Measures .................................................................................................................................................... 33 Results .............................................................................................................................................. 35 Discussion ......................................................................................................................................... 37 Footnotes........................................................................................................................................... 40 CHAPTER 3 Masculinity Threat, Public Shame, and Harassment Endorsement on Twitter ................................................................................................................................................. 50 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 50 Hypotheses ........................................................................................................................................ 51 Method .............................................................................................................................................. 52 Participants ................................................................................................................................................. 52 Materials and Procedure .............................................................................................................................. 53 Measures .................................................................................................................................................... 55 Results .............................................................................................................................................. 57 v Discussion ......................................................................................................................................... 60 Footnotes........................................................................................................................................... 63 CHAPTER 4 Anonymity, Masculinity Threat, and Sharing Memes on Facebook .............. 71 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 71 Hypotheses ........................................................................................................................................ 74 Method .............................................................................................................................................. 76 Participants ................................................................................................................................................. 76 Materials and Procedure .............................................................................................................................. 76 Pretesting Memes ........................................................................................................................................ 80 Measures ...................................................................................................................................................