The State of Intersectionality in Experimental Masculinity Threat Literature: A 30-Year Systematic Review

Following previous investigations on the roles of race/ethnicity, sexuality, and intersectionality in social psychology, we investigate how often and to what extent these concepts are studied within the experimental masculinity threat literature.

We conducted a systematic review on the use of race/ethnicity, sexuality, and intersectionality within the experimental masculinity threat literature. As part of a larger project on the impact of masculinity threats, we searched 4 databases, obtaining 2,898 unique references. Of these, we included 98 references with a total of 151 studies that were published between 1985 and 2023. For each study, we extracted information on whether the study mentioned, analyzed, or seriously considered each topic of interest.

While we find that the majority of articles reference race/ethnicity and sexuality, a much smaller number include race/ethnicity or sexuality into their analyses and very few seriously consider sexuality, with none seriously considering race/ethnicity. Intersectionality is referenced by a very small number of articles.

We build on existing work to demonstrate the present state of race/ethnicity, sexuality, and intersectionality within one literature within social psychology drawing attention to the field’s growth and areas for improvement. To our knowledge, no study has investigated the prevalence of race/ethnicity, sexuality, and intersectionality within a specific sector of the social psychology literature using data from the last 30 years.