Recruiting reddit MRAs and feminists for a social psychology study!

BrunoShin · 2015-03-08T03:33:33+00:00

If you could send the link to those studies in social psychology about feminist atitudes and behaviour I would be very grateful. I would also be glad to read your study when it is finished

iN00Briated · 2015-03-08T07:26:47+00:00

The researcher, Dr. Richard Eibach" is a "social justice" feminist. I suggest not participating.

The "Student Investigator," Amy Yeung wrote a piece, entitled:

"Anti-feminist backlash: The role of system justification in the rejection of feminism"

Edit: Corrected in line with Anonlymouse's observation

DavidByron2 · 2015-03-08T02:16:10+00:00

whereas there has been some social psychological research on feminism and feminists

That sounds interesting. What have you found? I would guess that the problem is that a lot of people in that sort of field already think of themselves as feminist so it's a bit conflict of interest-y.

chocoboat · 2015-03-08T04:40:53+00:00

There are a number of questions where I'm not sure how to answer. For example, asking about certain groups being better than other groups, or whether some groups should have preferential treatment.

I certainly don't think whites should be in control over things more than blacks, but I do think a group such as "intelligent people" should be in control of things more than groups such as "violent religious zealots" or "special needs children".

And I don't think men are better than women, but I do think doctors are better than murderers.

Then it asks about the issue of women being paid less than men for equal work, and what the causes of this problem are. I don't think that problem exists, so how can I answer if it's caused more by biology or by society's gender roles?

iainmf · 2015-03-08T09:10:09+00:00

I think you post got auto-removed from /r/feminism because you posted here as well. They don't seem to like sharing.

2015-03-08T07:37:08+00:00

Not a frequent contributor l, but I just have to say I'm uncomfortable with how ambiguous and loaded those questions were. Way to easy to twist that data to represent something other than what was interpreted by the subject.

socialpsychresearch · 2015-03-08T17:47:46+00:00

Hi everyone, thank you for your interest in the study. I just wanted to clear up some things that came up when I was browsing through the comments! I'm aware that the post is removed and I'm currently talking to the mods about their concerns about this study (e.g., potential issues with anonymity and bias) and I'm hoping that the thread will be up again later. But either way, I wanted to address some of the concerns you've expressed in the mean time:

Can we see the results, when you have them? The thesis/project/report that is.

The short answer: Yes, I'm not sure when, but will do so as soon as it is feasible.

The long answer: I definitely plan to share the results, although I cannot give a specific timeline for that at this moment because of factors that are difficult to anticipate. For example, if I wanted to run a follow-up study to go deeper and further investigate an interesting finding from this study, then distributing the results from the current study could challenge the validity of a future study. If that is the case, I could look into the possibility of sharing parts of the results (e.g., demographics and basic attitudes) in the mean time that won't interfere with subsequent studies. I hope this makes sense.

Not a frequent contributor l, but I just have to say I'm uncomfortable with how ambiguous and loaded those questions were. Way to easy to twist that data to represent something other than what was interpreted by the subject.

and

yea i ended up deciding not to finish the survey because too many of the questions were excessively ambiguous and i felt like they were trying to trick me into saying something that could be misconstrued as sexist or racist. i understand that to a point you want to be vague with these surveys so you don't lead the person and bias their answers, but this was too often too much.

I noticed this seems to be a sentiment shared by a few people so I wanted to address it. First, because psychological surveys are designed to capture a wide array of attitudes, not all questions are going to seem personally-relevant or representative of everyone's attitudes. We also have some questions that are very general (and somewhat ambiguous) and ones that are very specific, which also helps us capture a wide range of attitudes. Not EVERY question is going to be relevant and representative for EVERY person who takes the survey, but We're not interested in how one person answers one particular question, but rather how groups of people answer a scale with 10 questions, for example. When social psychologists analyze data, we focus on averages across groups and look at the big picture. There are no right or wrong answers when doing the survey -- if you are not sure, just go with your gut. If you think a question is strange and don't agree with it, then select disagree. If you think a question is ambiguous and depends on the context, then select an option somewhere in the middle that best reflects your position.
Second, not all the scales and questions used in the study were designed by the researchers (in fact, most were not)! In order to fit novel research like this into the existing literature from decades of research in the field, researchers have to use some of the already well-established scales to make meaningful comparisons. For example, do self-identified MRAs and feminists on reddit differ from other samples researchers have used in the past (mostly college students or Mechanical Turk participants)? Well, we wouldn't know unless we use some scales that have been well-established and validated in the field so that we have some basis for comparison as a starting point.
Lastly, please keep in mind that this is our first attempt at this research (which no one else has done, to the best of our knowledge). As much work as we've put into designing the study and picking survey items/issues that would be relevant to both MRAs and feminists, there really is no such thing as a perfect study. Of course we don't expect that the FIRST study that researchers designed to look at a new group (reddit MRAs and feminists) in a non-traditional sample (reddit vs. college and Mturk) would be designed perfectly, but we hope that this is a good starting point. ****This is why researchers appreciate comments and suggestions from participants. I've made sure to put a comment box at the very end of the study asking specifically for your comments or suggestions for future research. So if you see something that was very lacking in this survey, then tell us about it in the study's comment box or email us!****

The "Student Investigator," Amy Leung wrote a piece, entitled: "Anti-feminist backlash: The role of system justification in the rejection of feminism[1] "

and

Meanwhile, over at /r/askfeminists[1]

Just did this survey and it's one of the best gender related ones I've done. Very comprehensive and overall good answer templates. I found it very interesting to participate. Good luck with your study.

I understand that there are some concerns in the thread about my position, but there are also some very positive comments I received via email and the study’s comment box from MRAs who have completed the study. I got an email from a self-identified MRA who finished my study this morning who said that they enjoyed the study and would like to participate in any future studies I have. I think it is silly to think “Oh, feminists/MRAs liked this study... the researcher must be biased!” It's ironic that some people here think the study is biased against MRAs, because my recruitment posts in some feminist subreddits were actually removed (potentially because they think my study is biased too, but in the other direction). It is my hope and my goal that people on both sides of the debate would see some value in this study.

At the end of the day, there are MRAs and feminists who like the study, and there are MRAs and feminists who do not. It is not my goal or intention to promote any agenda – I am a researcher first and foremost and I’m trying to get some answers. I think this is an important and interesting study because there has been no research done on MRA identification and attitudes. I think that both MRA and feminist groups are guilty of picking the worst examples of each other when challenging the validity of opposing views and it seems that all we have in the media are caricatures, which is another reason why I want to examine what MRAs and feminists’ attitudes really are. I didn’t spend a month working on the study materials and website so that I could produce a biased study. It would reflect quite poorly on me as a researcher to conduct clearly biased studies and publish clearly biased results. If you are uncomfortable with the study, then it is your choice not to participate. If you are/were considering participating in the study, then I hope you make a decision informed by facts and scientific understanding (as I've described a bit above).

TL;DR Again, I cannot emphasize enough (see #3 above) that this is our first study with a novel sample group and there's no such thing as a perfect study, but I hope it is a good starting point. If you have suggestions about this study or future studies, we would really like to hear from you. Please contact us by PM, the comment box at the end of the study, or email us. There are MRAs and feminists who like the study and also ones who don't -- it is up to you to decide if you would like to participate. I'd be happy to answer questions you have about deciding whether to participate.

MRSPArchiver · 2015-03-08T01:28:48+00:00

Post text automatically copied here. (Why?) (Report a problem.)

sillymod · 2015-03-08T14:45:20+00:00

I have removed this. You haven't guaranteed people's anonymity, you have a clear biased position, and there is no way to assure that the people you select for are in fact MRAs (ie responding truthfully). We have had many instances of feminists and anti-MRA trolls skewing the results of surveys.

jamminnummeruno · 2015-03-08T12:05:20+00:00

Well i'm half way through and this survey seems to have subtle feminist bias imo.

Title	Recruiting reddit MRAs and feminists for a social psychology study!
Author	socialpsychresearch
Upvotes	30
Comments	35
Date	March 8, 2015 1:28 AM UTC (11 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/2yanti/recruiting_reddit_mras_and_feminists_for_a_social/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/recruiting-reddit-mras-and-feminists-for-a-social.986446 https://theredarchive.com/post/986446

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