Social Grievances and Anti-feminist Sentiments: How Loneliness and Social Marginalization Shape Anti-feminist Attitudes across Genders and Socio-economic Interdependence

Using representative survey data from Germany, this paper investigates the association and conditionalities between perceived social grievances, namely social marginalization and loneliness, and antifeminist attitudes. We find that both grievances are positively associated with anti-feminist sentiment. Exploring effect heterogeneity, we find that the associations are slightly stronger for men, but these differences are minimal in substantive terms. However, using a three-way interaction model, we find that financial dissatisfaction can compensate for some of the negative associations between marginalization as well as loneliness with anti-feminist attitudes for men; the opposite is the case for women. Arguing from an identity threat theory perspective, the study shows how gender plays an incremental role in how the perceived personal situation exerts an influence on gender related attitudes. Therefore, our study contributes to our understanding of how perceived grievances interact with socio-demographic characteristics and how this interplay potentially increases anti-feminist attitudes.