There is evidence that when a man's masculinity is threatened or just perceived as threatened, then that man will overcompensate in order to reassert his masculinity and perhaps even reassert his dominance over others. I don't think this is a facet of human behavior which is limited to just men and their masculinity; indeed, it would be implausible that we'd only ever see this kind of behavior in one set of circumstances.
"Threatened masculinity" theory proposes that males have experienced an increased drive for muscularity in recent times as a result of females' expanded accomplishments among traditionally male dominated domains. We tested this hypothesis experimentally by examining the effects of competitive performance feedback against either a male or female opponent on male's state self-esteem, body image, and confidence in physical performance.
Sixty-six male undergraduate students were given false performance feedback on a competitive task in a 2 (failure versus success feedback) x 2 (male versus female opponent) factorial design. Men felt worse about their appearance and less confident in their physical ability following failure in general. They felt less muscular after failing to a female.
These results lend some support to the threatened masculinity hypothesis and demonstrate that failure to a woman, even on a nonphysical task, may elicit compensatory drive for muscularity among men.
Source: "Competition and Male Body Image: Increased Drive for Muscularity Following Failure to a Female" from Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology
Source: Bakadesuyo
Overcompensating in order to reassert masculinity involves doing things that our culture deems most stereotypically "male." The one referenced explicitly above is the drive for muscularity -- in other words, working out heavily in order to look and feel more muscular immediately after losing to a woman. Other examples would include asserting dominance over women in one's life, even to the point of verbal and physical abuse.
Where else do we see this kind of overcompensating? I think we see it in Christians whenever they feel that their Christianity is being threatened. It's easy to find Christians complaining that their liberties are threatened when the only things under attack, if anything, is unjust privileges. When this happens, Christians frequently seem to overcompensate by asserting their Christianity ever more aggressively.
Do you find that this is what's happening? What sorts of overcompensating behavior do you notice among Christians when they seem to feel that their religion is threatened in any way?
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