Getting to the Heart of Masculinity Stressors: Masculinity Threats Induce Pronounced Vagal Withdrawal During a Speaking
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Getting to the Heart of Masculinity Stressors: Masculinity Threats Induce Pronounced Vagal Withdrawal During a Speaking Task Brandon L. Kramer, MA 1,2 & Mary S. Himmelstein, PhD 2,3,4 & Kristen W. Springer, PhD, MPH 1,2
# The Society of Behavioral Medicine 2017
Abstract Background Previous work has found that traditional masculinity ideals and behaviors play a crucial role in higher rates of morbidity and mortality for men. Some studies also suggest that threatening men’s masculinity can be stressful. Over time, this stress can weigh on men’s cardiovascular and metabolic systems, which may contribute to men’s higher rates of cardiometabolic health issues. Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore how masculinity threats affect men’s heart rate and heart rate variability reactivity (i.e., vagal withdrawal) to masculinity feedback on a social speaking task. Methods Two hundred and eighty-five undergraduate males were randomly assigned to one of six conditions during a laboratory-based speech task. They received one of two feedback types (masculinity or control) and one of three feedback levels (low, high, or dropping) in order to assess whether masculinity threats influence heart rate reactivity and vagal withdrawal patterns during the speech task. Results Men who receive low masculinity feedback during the speech task experienced more pronounced vagal withdrawal relative to those who received the control. * Kristen W. Springer [email protected] 1
Department of Sociology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 26 Nichol Ave, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
2
Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
3
Department of Psychology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
4
Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, University of Connecticut, Hartford, CT, USA
Conclusion Masculinity threats can induce vagal withdrawal that may accumulate over the life course to contribute to men’s relatively worse cardiometabolic health. Keywords Stress . Masculinity . Men’s health . Heart rate variability . Vagal withdrawal
Introduction Scholars have long been interested in how status dynamics are linked to social stressors and long-term health outcomes [1, 2]. It is now well-known that threats to one’s social status can induce some physiological responses in experimental settings including on cortisol and cardiovascular (CV) reactivity measures [3–5]. As social stress accumulates over the life course, it can “wear and tear” on the body—a concept known as allostatic load, leading to poorer cognitive and physical functioning, metabolic syndrome, and CV disease [6–9]. Yet, one understudied process in this literature is how gender-specific stressors can induce physiological reactivity in experimental settings and whether this may help account for men’s earlier mortality and higher rates of morbidity on many of the leading causes of death [10, 11]. As recent studies have demonstrated, men oft
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