This study aims to replicate the original research of the Precarious Manhood Theory (PMT) in the cultural context of Turkey with four experimental studies. PMT examines manhood as precarious because of its uncertain, anxious, and threat-prone social status. It has three basic tenets compared to womanhood: people see manhood as a hardly acquired social status achieved through gender performances, it can be easily lost, this creates anxious status, and it should be proved to others. In the first study, participants’ agreement with the hard-won status of manhood/womanhood was examined via indirect (i.e., fabricated proverbs) and direct measures (i.e., precariousness statements). Participants perceived manhood as more precarious compared to womanhood in both measures. However, they also attributed the transition from childhood to manhood and womanhood to physical rather than social factors. Also, high levels of

ECP2023 Brighton | Abstracts 448

masculinity ideology predicted precarious manhood beliefs. Femininity avoidance moderated the perceptions of precarious manhood/womanhood.

In the second study, the assumption that manhood/womanhood can be lost was tested. The results showed that participants attributed manhood loss more to social conditions rather than physical/biological conditions. Unlike the original study, Turkish participants viewed womanhood as losable by being subjected to violence, sexual harassment, rape, humiliation, and exhaustion from life difficulties.

In the third and fourth studies, participants were given an experimental gender threat and asked to complete word fragments related to anxiety and aggression, respectively. Men (compared to women) reacted with more physically aggressive cognitions after gender threat, whereas there was no difference in anxious cognitions. The results showed that the assumptions of PMT are directly replicated in the Turkish cultural context with a cultural nuance related to how Turkish people see womanhood loss. The study provides the basis for future cross-cultural and replication studies related to precarious manhood and womanhood.