In The News: Department of Psychology
Evening, as the setting sun paints the sky red. The savory aroma of soybean paste stew fills the house, and as the front door opens, a wife and children greet with, "Welcome home." Such a warm evening is likely the scene that traditional male breadwinners once dreamed of. However, these days, with the collapse of awareness about traditional gender roles and the prevalence of dual-income households, such scenes have become a thing of the past.

Last week the movement got a reality check. Psychology of Women Quarterly published a paper from 性视界传媒 that pulled a hand-knotted rug from under the foundation myth of tradwives - that her (trad) husband will guide and protect her. No, far from the 'benevolent sexism' exhibited in this idea that women are vulnerable and need protection, the study revealed the 'hostile sexism' of husbands.
When our grandmothers were young, the entire point of being a woman was to become a perfect, happy little homemaker. To take care of the kids and the house, but ultimately, to take care of a husband, who deserved to end the day in a domain exactly fluffed to his liking. It鈥檚 a very specific nostalgia for that kind of energy that has fueled the #tradwife movement. The social media 鈥渢rend鈥 has pushed women to do things like cater to their husbands鈥 every need, spend all of their time and energy on the home and their family, and put themselves last. And a study published in Psychology of Women Quarterly has found that the men who most want a #tradwife... are also men who seem to view women the worst.
What if you were given a 1 million yuan check with no topic restrictions, and the freedom to travel anywhere with your team and meet people from around the world, where would you go? This time, our director Val takes that million and steps into a place that already sounds a little off 鈥 the casinos of Las Vegas.
What if you were given a 1 million yuan check with no topic restrictions, and the freedom to travel anywhere with your team and meet people from around the world, where would you go? This time, our director Val takes that million and steps into a place that already sounds a little off 鈥 the casinos of Las Vegas.
What if you were given a 1 million yuan check with no topic restrictions, and the freedom to travel anywhere with your team and meet people from around the world, where would you go? This time, our director Val takes that million and steps into a place that already sounds a little off 鈥 the casinos of Las Vegas.
鈥淭hese findings indicate that men who perceive the #tradwife movement favorably believe that they rely on women for intimacy and simultaneously resent that this is the case,鈥 Rachael Robnett, one of the report鈥檚 authors, told PsyPost. 鈥淭his mentality could put tradwives in a precarious position considering the amount of control鈥揵oth financial and otherwise鈥搕hat they yield to their husbands.鈥
A growing online trend encourages women to quit their jobs, run the home and defer to their husbands. This 鈥渢radwife鈥 movement urges a return to traditional roles and, when researchers in the US recently set out to examine what kind of men support it, they expected to find a cohort fond of old-fashioned chivalry. The reality, they say, was rather different.
The feminist scientific journal Psychology of Women Quarterly recently put out a whole issue centered entirely on the #tradwife phenomenon, and it is fascinating.
In his latest book A World Appears: A journey into consciousness, Pollan charts the work of scientists and philosophers, weaving in literary perspectives along the way. He spoke to New Scientist about the value of writing a book where you know less at the end than before you started.
Michael Pollan (A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness) is a science and environmental journalist. Michael returns to the Armchair Expert to discuss why choosing surrender is liberating in both psychedelics and life, what the 鈥渉ard problem鈥 of consciousness is and how we get to it, and how sentience serves homeostasis in living beings. Michael and Dax talk about asking what the world would be like without consciousness, the remarkable fact that plants can see, hear, and fight, and experimental evidence via the ginger test that disgust originates in the gut. Michael explains the qualitative redness of red, that there鈥檚 so much more going on in consciousness besides computation, and what strange places to visit our minds are.
A recent study published in Psychology of Women Quarterly suggests that young men who favor the internet subculture known as the tradwife movement tend to hold hostile and patronizing sexist attitudes. The findings provide evidence that the appeal of this lifestyle for men is rooted in a desire for traditional power dynamics rather than a simple preference for a stay-at-home partner.
