Man Box Test

The idea of the Man Box comes from the work of Paul Kivel and the Oakland Men's Project, and Promundo-US turned it into a survey of 17 statements for its 2017 study by Brian Heilman, Gary Barker, and Alexander Harrison. Amber Hill and colleagues then tested those statements in 3,673 young men aged 18 to 30 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Mexico. Writing in Preventive Medicine in 2020, they found that 15 of the statements measure a single thing: how strongly a man personally agrees with the Man Box. The other two did not fit in every country and were dropped. This test asks those 15 statements word for word.

Although the scale measures one overarching construct, the original framework categorizes these beliefs across seven distinct pillars. Self Sufficiency reflects the belief that men should handle personal problems entirely alone without seeking help or sharing emotional burdens. Acting Tough says a man must fight back when pushed around and act strong even when he feels scared or nervous inside. Physical Attractiveness holds that a man must look good to succeed, yet must not be seen fussing over his looks. Rigid Gender Roles keeps boys and men away from cooking, cleaning, and childcare and makes men the breadwinners.

The remaining pillars capture interpersonal and relational dynamics. Homophobia measures the rejection of gay men as authentic men. Hypersexuality defines masculine status through the pursuit of numerous sexual partners and never saying no to sex. Finally, Aggression and Control endorses the use of force to command respect, maintaining final authority over relationship decisions, and monitoring a partner's whereabouts. Because these individual pillar scores rest on only one to three items each, they provide a rough thematic breakdown, whereas your overall Total Man Box score remains the primary validated metric.

In Hill et al. (2020), young men who agreed more with the Man Box were more likely to report bullying others (verbally, online, and physically) and sexually harassing women in the past month, to be at risk of depression, and to have had suicidal thoughts. The Promundo study by Heilman, Barker, and Harrison (2017) also linked the Man Box to binge drinking and to men not seeking help when they need it. These are associations in surveys, not proof that the beliefs cause these outcomes. The researchers describe the Man Box as social pressure rather than biology: the young men in the Promundo survey were less likely to agree with the rules themselves than to say that society tells men to follow them.

Your result chart compares your pillar scores and your total with the published averages of 1,328 young American men aged 18 to 30 (Hill et al., 2020, Table A.3), rescaled to 0 to 100. Because this test uses a 5-point agreement scale rather than the original 4-point one, these markers are estimates from the published sample, not validated norms. They are averages for men; a woman taking the test is compared with them too.

This test is intended strictly for educational, reflective, and entertainment purposes. It is not a clinical assessment, diagnostic tool, or behavioral evaluation, and a higher score does not indicate that an individual will inevitably behave aggressively or experience mental health difficulties. This assessment is based on the published Man Box Scale but is an independent implementation and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Amber Hill, her co-authors, or Promundo. If you are experiencing distress or difficulties in your personal relationships, consider consulting a qualified counselor or mental health professional.

References

• Hill, A. L., Miller, E., Switzer, G. E., Yu, L., Heilman, B., Levtov, R. G., Vlahovicova, K., Espelage, D. L., Barker, G., & Coulter, R. W. S. (2020). Harmful masculinities among younger men in three countries: Psychometric study of the Man Box Scale. Preventive Medicine, 139, 106185.
• Heilman, B., Barker, G., & Harrison, A. (2017). The Man Box: A study on being a young man in the US, UK, and Mexico. Promundo-US and Unilever.

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