The Brief

Many people are arguing that young men are in a crisis. From spending too much time playing video games or at the gym to the widening higher education gap between the sexes.

During a week-long series on AirTalk, LAist’s daily news program, we unpacked six major themes with experts, researchers and listeners. We learned a lot. Here are the takeaways.

Gen Z men swerve to the right

According to early exit polls from the 2024 presidential election, young men showed a shift to the right in political ideology. 

NYU psychologist and author Niobe Way researches these trends. She said young men are desperate for meaningful connections and friendships. They also feel as if they’ve been placed “at the bottom of the hierarchy of needs” and therefore not being taken seriously.

“It does not matter if it's true,” she said. “It’s about the feeling.”

Jacob Grumbach, associate professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, said that even though there was an increase of racial resentment and a rise of cultural conservatism among young men. Overall, Zoomers are still the most progressive generation, he added.

Fast-tracking their muscles

Fitness is often seen as a core indicator of man’s masculinity. However, in the age of algorithmic social media, gym culture has mutated into what can sometimes become dangerous hubs for young men on their quest for fitness.

The benefits of fitness are obvious. What we’re talking about is when it reaches an extreme and becomes a problem, which can be physical and mental. These problems are generally under recognized in boys.

S. Bryn Austin, director of STRIPED, an eating disorder research and training program at Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital, said muscle building supplements aren’t regulated by the FDA and have been found to be laced with undisclosed pharmaceuticals and even experimental stimulants. These products are easily advertised online by social media influencers and any kid can buy them, so parents should stay vigilant, she added.

The increasing education gap

Experts who joined the series said the research points to boys starting behind academically and that they have a hard time committing to school, which leads to lack of self-confidence. They also report feeling more isolated in higher education.

Does this put young men in a bad position economically when they hit the labor force though?

Economist Kathryn Anne Edwards said that within every educational category, whether you have a high school degree or a PhD, whether you compare the wages of different ethnicities, men out earn women in every category. From the labor market perspective, "the unequivocal advantage is still with men,” she said.

Young men and faith

Another gender-gap we’re seeing — spirituality and faith.

Ryan Berge, who researches religious identity trends, said it looks like young men may be slightly more religious than young women, "which is something that we have never seen in the history of modern polling.”

“I am hearing a lot of young white men especially tell me that one of the reasons they are drawn to spaces like the Catholic church or the conservative evangelical is because those are spaces where you don't have to apologize for being a white man," Berge said.

Dating and relationships

Shame, emotional illiteracy, fear of rejection, and lack of self-confidence are the big contributors to young men forming connections, according to the experts we talked with.

Daniel Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life at the American Enterprise Institute, has found young women are prioritizing political compatibility in ways they didn’t used to.

“People just don't seem to be having much fun," he said. "There is a lot more negativity and pessimism about whether they'll be able to find a spouse or partner.”

What even is masculinity?

To round out the series, we posed this question to experts Niobe Way, a NYU psychologist and author, and Ioakim Boutakidis, professor and fellow at Cal State Fullerton’s American Institute for Boys and Men: