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The implicit association between masculinity and criminal organizations.

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  • Author(s): Travaglino GA;Travaglino GA; Marini M; Marini M
  • Source:
    Scientific reports [Sci Rep] 2025 Jun 06; Vol. 15 (1), pp. 19866. Date of Electronic Publication: 2025 Jun 06.
  • Publication Type:
    Journal Article
  • Language:
    English
  • Additional Information
    • Source:
      Publisher: Nature Publishing Group Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101563288 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 2045-2322 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 20452322 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Sci Rep Subsets: MEDLINE
    • Publication Information:
      Original Publication: London : Nature Publishing Group, copyright 2011-
    • Subject Terms:
      Masculinity* ; Criminals*/psychology; Humans ; Male ; Adult ; Female ; Young Adult ; Italy ; Attitude ; Middle Aged ; Crime
    • Abstract:
      Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical approval: The studies in this manuscript were approved by the University of Kent’s ethics committee and were conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the British Psychological Society and the American Psychological Association. Informed consent was obtained from all participants in the studies.
      Criminal groups, such as Italian criminal organizations, exert governance over communities. According to Intra-Cultural Appropriation Theory (ICAT), these groups can gain a degree of legitimacy by strategically appropriating masculinity values. Specifically, by portraying themselves as embodying masculinity, criminal organizations are evaluated more positively by individuals who endorse masculine honor ideologies. An untested assumption of this process is that individuals ascribe masculine qualities to criminal groups. In two studies (N tot = 310), we employed the Single Category Implicit Association Test to investigate whether individuals implicitly associated the categories of 'male' (Study 1) and 'masculinity' (Study 2) with criminal organizations as opposed to the state. Additionally, in Study 2, we tested whether this implicit association moderated the relationship between individuals' endorsement of masculine honor ideology and their attitudes toward criminal organizations. The findings supported the hypothesis that individuals implicitly attributed masculinity-related concepts to criminal organizations. Study 2 further showed that the positive link between endorsement of masculine honor ideology and legitimizing attitudes towards criminal organizations was stronger when individuals also held a stronger implicit association between masculinity and criminal organizations.
      (© 2025. The Author(s).)
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    • Grant Information:
      EP/X02170X/1 UK Research and Innovation
    • Contributed Indexing:
      Keywords: Criminal organizations; Implicit associations; Legitimacy; Masculinity; SC-IAT
    • Publication Date:
      Date Created: 20250605 Date Completed: 20250606 Latest Revision: 20250608
    • Publication Date:
      20250608
    • Accession Number:
      PMC12141567
    • Accession Number:
      10.1038/s41598-025-03984-8
    • Accession Number:
      40473723