10 Scientific American, August 2020
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COMMENTARY ON SCIENCE IN
THE NEWS FROM THE EXPERTS
Illustration by Martin GeePeter Glick is Henry Merritt Wriston Professor of the Social
Sciences at Lawrence University and a senior scientist at the
NeuroLeadership Institute.Masks and
Emasculation
Why some male leaders won’t take
COVID-19 safety precautions
By Peter Glick
In April, Vice President Mike Pence violated COVID-19 safety pro-
tocols at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, refusing to don a mask
when he toured the hospital. In May, President Donald Trump
similarly eschewed a mask—while visiting a mask-making facili-
ty. Pence said he wanted to look health care workers in the eye,
even though masks don’t cover the eyes. Trump has simply said
more than once that he is choosing not to do it.
Why? Because “real men” don’t play it safe. It’s a prescription
that, data show, leads men more than women to resist seat belts,
take greater physical risks and suffer accidental death at much
higher rates. Research has demonstrated that society treats mas-
culinity as an earned status, hard won and easily lost. And the
coronavirus has laid bare how some male leaders value project-
ing a tough guy image over promoting the common good. They
defy experts’ warnings about the danger they pose to other peo-
ple susceptible to the virus.
During the coronavirus pandemic, leaders focused on defend-
ing a macho image have put their nations at risk in two ways. First,
the words and actions of public figures influence their followers
through a phenomenon known as social modeling. In Brazil, cell-
phone data revealed decreased social distancing after President
Jair Bolsonaro dismissed the COVID-19 pandemic. In the U.S.,
Trump’s tweets have encouraged resistance to stay-at-home
orders. When leaders fail to endorse safety precautions or active-
ly mock them, fewer people take those precautions.
The second way, indicated by my research with Jennifer Ber-
dahl and Natalya Alonso, is that when leaders endorse hypermas-
culine norms, poor decisions and organizational dysfunction fol-
low. In research with nearly 2,000 participants, we validated
something called the masculinity contest culture scale, which asks
subjects to agree or disagree with certain norms that assess wheth-
er organizational cultures reward toxic male behavior.
Consider two such norms. The first, “show no weakness,”
includes the ideas that admitting you don’t know the answer and
that seeking others’ advice are seen as weak. Trump’s resistance
to expert opinion and his “I alone can fix it” attitude exemplify
this attitude. When leaders see listening to experts as undermin-
ing their masculinity, science fails to translate into policy.
Another norm, “dog-eat-dog competition” (assessed by items
such as “you’re either ‘in’ or you’re ‘out’ ” and “you’ve got to watch
your back”), represents the core of the masculinity contest. Every
situation is a zero-sum game, promoting suspicion, refusal to admit
mistakes, demands for total loyalty and score settling. The result:
A win-or-die culture where co-workers constantly compete rath-
er than collaborate. For example, Trump has threatened to with-
hold critical supplies from states whose governors criticize him.
The pandemic has unmasked the dangers of this type of behav-
ior among national leaders. Trump, reportedly a germaphobe who
hates shaking hands even in the best of times, downplayed the
virus and continued to press the flesh well into March. In the U.K.,
Prime Minister Boris Johnson similarly insisted on handshakes as
the coronavirus spread, leading the Guardian to label him a “super
spreader” weeks before he fell ill with COVID-19 and spent days
in the hospital. Bolsonaro, who bragged that his athleticism would
insulate him from the virus, continues to wade into crowds, shak-
ing hands and hugging supporters. All three minimized the pan-
demic when it first spread across their countries. In contrast, coun-
tries with female leaders—New Zealand and Germany, for
example—have generally done better, by empowering scientific
experts and supporting prevention measures.
It’s important to note that not all male leaders value a macho
image over saving lives. For example, Captain Brett Crozier, who
commanded the U.S. aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, priori-
tized sailors’ well-being when coronavirus broke out. He persist-
ed in seeking help after facing delays and opposition to his request
to evacuate and quarantine the crew. Relieved of his post, he was
cheered by his crew as he departed his ship. Similarly, New York
Governor Andrew Cuomo has focused on the communal goal,
doing whatever it takes to minimize COVID-19 deaths.
Effective leadership comes from commitment to the mission.
Unfortunately, in the current coronavirus crisis, Trump’s continu-
ing need to ignore the advice of experts to show that he is some
sort of tough guy harms us all.JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE
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