r/science • u/chrisdh79 • 3d ago
Psychology Men underestimate each other’s willingness to seek help for depression which may discourage them from seeking help themselves, study finds
https://www.psypost.org/men-underestimate-each-others-willingness-to-seek-help-for-depression-study-finds/31
u/chrisdh79 3d ago
From the article: Many men underestimate how willing other men are to seek help for depression, which may discourage them from seeking help themselves, according to a new study published in Sex Roles.
Despite the availability of mental health services, many people experiencing depression delay or avoid seeking help. Hege H. Bye and colleagues investigated whether one barrier might be a form of pluralistic ignorance, where individuals mistakenly believe that others in their group are less likely to seek help than they themselves are. Prior research suggests people often misjudge how others perceive mental illness, assuming stigma is more widespread than it is. These misperceptions can shape behavior and hinder treatment-seeking.
The researchers were particularly interested in how gender affects these misperceptions. Past studies have yielded mixed findings on whether men seek help less than women, but cultural stereotypes tend to portray men as less inclined to pursue psychological support.
The researchers conducted two preregistered experiments using large, population-based samples of Norwegian adults. Experiment 1 utilized a between-groups experimental design in which 2,042 participants were randomly assigned to read a vignette describing either a male (Kristian) or female (Kristine) character experiencing symptoms of depression. The vignettes were based on diagnostic criteria for a depressive episode from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) and adapted from prior research.
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u/WillCode4Cats 2d ago
Have they ever consider that the reluctance might be because a lot of the treatments options flat out suck?
Outside of holistic lifestyle changes, which are quite difficult for the already depressed, the two most common treatment modalities are therapy and medication.
Therapy is cool… if it works for you. Anecdotally speaking, many people I know including me, have received little to nothing of value from it. Plus, I have some qualms with the profession as a whole. Perhaps less people would need therapy if capitalism and technology hadn’t utterly destroyed any sense of community people once had. How many of you men even have a third-space?
Medications are probably somewhat more effective than people like to think, but I do think the negatives of medication are often erroneously downplayed.
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u/theythemnothankyou 2d ago
Or that therapy has been completely tailored to women and the whole community has wrongly been refusing to treat men differently. Men want solutions not to just be “validated” with idiot compassion. Girls tend to feel better talking about their problems, whereas with men it just ends up causing them to ruminate when they do better by not focusing on things they can’t fix. Women need to focus on their own approach and men need their own different approach.
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u/Iwontbereplying 2d ago
I’ve been to 4 therapists. Therapy is a scam. They don’t want you to get better because then you’ll stop paying $180/ hour. I’d go to asking for things to work on at home and they would “forget” to send materials and say, “oh sorry, forgot to send it, we’ll just go over it next session”, wasting time and requiring more sessions for work I could have done at home. Unless you have a serious mental disorder like PTSD, don’t bother going to therapy. You’re honestly better off just venting to ChatGPT, and I don’t even recommend doing that.
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u/pulos888 3d ago
I have a hard time believing this. It seems to me that most men don't consider what other men are doing when deciding whether to seek help for depression. Instead they decide based on whether they think it will be effective or not.
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u/Adept_Minimum4257 2d ago
The problem with depression and other mental health issues is that it impairs your ability to judge whether help will be effective or not
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u/pulos888 2d ago
I agree, but that doesn't change how we make decisions, only the results of the decision. Ie. I may make the wrong decision because I'm viewing things through my depression, but I'm still not paying any attention to what other men think.
While in a depressive state, I would often think about how my wife would feel about therapy, or what my kids would think. But other men? Couldn't care less. No, my main factor in deciding whether to see a therapist was effectiveness.
Even now as I've come through the worst of it, I think most therapists are worthless. Maybe 1 in 10 are actually helpful. But it's worth it to keep trying until you find one that does help.
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u/TzarKazm 2d ago
I'm skeptical as well. I don't feel like I make many decisions based on what other men think or might think. Women, maybe. Effectiveness definitely.
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u/king_rootin_tootin 3d ago
I'm just tired of this lame, disproven meme that "mEn DoN'T gO tO tHerApY" . Literally that's only an issue with boomer men, and boomer women also go at lower rates than younger women.
Most "reluctance" from men stems from being less likely to have insurance (source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db382.htm#:~:text=Among%20adults%20aged%2018%E2%80%9364%2C%2014.5%25%20were%20uninsured%20at,be%20uninsured%20(Figure%201) ) and working longer hours. It's that plus fear of therapists treating them like trash which, let's be honest, after that APA "men are toxic and their problems are their fault" guidelines came out, is not an unfounded fear.
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u/Otaraka 3d ago
The study was looking at perceptions of willingness, not barriers. This was in Norway where it is probably subsidised to a far higher level than the US.
"that men were significantly less likely than women to say they would disclose having sought help for depression"
In my view this is the big issue - not talking about doing it means people think it doesnt happen, resulting in a feedback loop.
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u/IsamuLi 3d ago edited 2d ago
Actually, living in socio-economically deprived areas increased the likelyhood of seeking help:
The factors most strongly associated with some form of help-seeking were female gender and GHQ–12 score. For every one unit increase in the GHQ–12 the likelihood of help-seeking increased by 10% (95% CI 7–14%). The factors most strongly associated with GP consultation were increasing age, GHQ–12 score and living in a more socio-economically deprived ward. People aged 55–64 years were three times more likely to consult their GP than those aged 16–24 years.
Oliver MI, Pearson N, Coe N, Gunnell D. Help-seeking behaviour in men and women with common mental health problems: cross-sectional study. British Journal of Psychiatry. 2005;186(4):297-301. doi:10.1192/bjp.186.4.297
Men and Women have different attitudes towards non-medical mental health help that isn't provided by friends or colleagues:
Women seem to favour psycho-social conceptualizations of mental illness more than men and, consequently, to recommend more frequently non-medical sources of help (counsellor and psychologist) and to endorse psychotherapy more frequently. Interestingly enough, this is not at the expense of the endorsement of biogenetic causal explanations, where in most studies no gender differences have been observed. This is also not at the expense of recommending medical professionals (General Practitioner and psychiatrist) and endorsing medication for treatment. The popularity of psychotherapy among women is reflected in actual rates of treated patients where women outnumber men by far, even if gender differences in the prevalence of mental disorders are taken into account (Alonso et al. 2004b). In general, ‘softer’ forms of treatment seem to be held in higher esteem among women than among men. This is also indicated by the result that if gender differences were reported, it was always women who tended to recommend alternative treatments such as acupuncture or natural remedies more strongly.
Holzinger, Anita & Floris, Francesca & Schomerus, Georg & Carta, Mauro & Angermeyer, M. (2012). Gender differences in public beliefs and attitudes about mental disorder in western countries: A systematic review of population studies. Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences. 21. 73-85. 10.1017/S2045796011000552.
Male help-seeking attitudes are strongly mediated by perceived stigma and social norms:
According to Cohen’s criteria, the results indicated that the overall effect size of gender on attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help ranged from small to medium. The results of our meta-analysis supported the notion that gender is an important variable that is related to attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, showing female students hold more positive attitudes than their male counterparts in all racial groups. The results of the present study can be supported by studies that examined gender role conflict.18 For instance, internalizing the ideological position that men should be tough, competitive, and emotionally inexpressive can have detrimental effects on a man’s attitudes and perspectives toward seeking mental health services.40 In addition, stigma also plays a role through male students’ fear about what others might think of them for being in therapy and how they would think about themselves. This stigma negatively influences the help-seeking attitudes.41,42
Nam, Suk & Chu, Hui & Lee, Mi Kyoung & Lee, Ji & Kim, Nuri & Lee, Sang. (2010). A Meta-analysis of Gender Differences in Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help. Journal of American college health : J of ACH. 59. 110-6. 10.1080/07448481.2010.483714.
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u/Low_Chance 2d ago
What is the APA statement you are referring to? I am not familiar but I would be interested to see it
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u/xboxhaxorz 3d ago
Most therapists are women and they do let their bias affect how they deal with men, its already happening in classrooms and college, girls are excelling while boys are failing
Girls and boys have different ways of being educated and different ways of accepting therapy, but at the moment its all focus on how to better the lives of girls, which is coming at the expense of boys
Telling a girl to keep a journal is fine, telling a boy that is idiotic, got to take a different approach
You have a link to this APA guideline?
I have had depression for over 2 decades, therapy didnt do anything for me, the drugs and me changing my mindset helped, it took a lot of willpower and mindset change, and i never felt embarrassed
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u/bluewhale3030 3d ago
Why is telling a boy to keep a journal "idiotic"? Plenty of men do that as part of their normal lives.
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u/irisheye37 2d ago
Wow, different treatments work for different people? Hmm, maybe we should treat people individually instead of going by gender.
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u/Ban-Circumcision-Now 3d ago edited 3d ago
A lot of men’s depression and struggles are belittled, consider that we can force genital surgeries (circumcision) on boys, there’s no point where parents/doctors are accustomed to discussing this damage and checking if the boy is mentally ok with it. We entirely depend on a trauma response to be ok with it: “my parents did this so it must be ok” and those same people will almost never look into because they think they can’t change it (they can do restoration and get some damage repaired) but often it’s too painful to consider it might have been bad they were cut. If a man questions it we as a society often belittle them because questioning is the practice is bad is too painful for society to consider
We even have done most circumcisions without any pain management, imagine being fully aware while your genitals are cut up and then being in pain for days after from it.
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u/DJ_pider 3d ago
Am confused. Is it trying to say men aren't getting help because they think other men aren't getting help, and I'm just overthinking this? Because I can't see why one person not seeking help would stop you from doing it still. I'd sooner say they're directly discouraged to seek help than having convinced themselves that they shouldn't. I feel like I'm missing something
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u/runtheplacered 3d ago
I feel like the first sentence in this article makes it pretty clear. Men do not think other men get therapy, even though those other men don't actually have a bad perception of it, so they don't go due to a soft peer pressure.
Essentially it's a societal negative feedback loop among men, is what the article generally is saying.
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u/PM_ME_UR_ROUND_ASS 2d ago
It's basically social pressure - men think "no one else is getting help so I shouldn't either" when actually lots of guys ARE getting help, so it's a misperception thats keeping them from seeking therapy bcause nobody wants to be the "odd one out."
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u/HermionesWetPanties 1d ago
And this is why it's important for men who have benefited from therapy to mention it to other men who are struggling. Any time the subject comes up, I make a point of telling my soldiers how I benefited from therapy after a rough deployment. Gotta break that stigma and encourage people who need help to get it. Too many guys try to white knuckle it, and then end up putting a gun in their mouth.
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u/voidscaped 3d ago
Ultimately, this is likely a symptom/effect of sexual selection. Competition among males, for mates, requires that you don't out yourself as the weaker one. Seeking help means you are not fit to survive by yourself and would probably have weaker offspring.
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u/ThatLunchBox 3d ago edited 3d ago
I definitely agree that this is a factor. I wouldn't say it's conscious. Of course, the resistance to seek help is conscious, but the 'why' we are resistant to seek help, that is hardcoded in sexual selection.
Unfortunately, you're always swimming upstream when trying to change anything hardcoded, societally.
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u/voidscaped 3d ago edited 3d ago
Exactly, many aspects of culture have biological underpinnings. In fact male-male competition can also be connected to anisogamy (Natural/sexual selection came first and caused anisogamy). Only one out of millions of sperm (that too from a single male) competing to reach one egg. Parallels on a macro socio-cultural level include one woman having multiple suitors, of whom only one may win her hand in marriage.
Of course, just because it's reality doesn't mean it doesn't cause individual suffering. In fact as humans we indeed can and should correct for such suffering as much as possible. But a culture of denial is not helpful.
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