In the run-up to the 2004 presidential election, a 26 year-old sociologist named Robb Willer achieved national notoriety when he showed that government-issued terror warnings correlated to higher job approval ratings for President Bush. As terror warnings went from yellow to orange and orange to red, Bush's approval ratings improved, and not just in national security but also on seemingly unrelated areas like the economy -- proof again of complexities of our myriad (ir)rationalities. Dr. Willer's findings landed him on the pages of USA Today and Washington Post, and in 2006 Willer became one of the youngest professors at the University of California. He is also a consultant to American Environics.

Some of Dr. Willer's most interesting work today is around gender. In 2004 Willer did a remarkable series of lab experiments demonstrating threats to men's masculinity often results in a kind of "overcompensation" -- more homophobia, acceptance of violence, and status displays.

Here's how it worked. Dr. Willer administered a "gender identity" survey to a set of male and female Cornell undergraduates. Participants were randomly assigned to receive feedback that they were unusually masculine, feminine or neither. While women's responses were unchanged regardless of this feedback, men who were told they had a more feminine identity were strongly affected. They expressed stronger support for the Iraq War, displayed more homophobic tendencies, and demonstrated more interest in owning an SUV or sports car.

"Masculinity-threatened men also reported feeling more ashamed, guilty, upset and hostile than did masculinity-confirmed men," states Dr.; Willer's report, "Overdoing Gender: Testing the Masculine Overcompensation Thesis."

In our discussion of post-materialism we argued that people must feel strong and secure in order for them to feel compassionate toward others. Dr. Willer's research points to another potential political lesson: men must feel secure about their masculinity in order to support more generous and progressive policies.

You can read more about Willer's fascinating research on subjects as varied as collective action and status, contagious altruism, and terrorism on his web site:

http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/willer