The Loneliness Trap: How Masculinity Norms Produce Male Isolation and Its Social Consequences
(2026) SOCK10 20261Sociology
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Loneliness affects over one in five people worldwide, yet how it is experienced is shaped by social and cultural context in ways that research has only partially examined. For men, norms surrounding masculinity, emphasising emotional stoicism, self-reliance and the avoidance of vulnerability, create specific conditions under which loneliness develops, goes unacknowledged, and resists being addressed. This study examines male loneliness as a social and cultural phenomenon, asking how masculinity norms shape its experience, how digital environments amplify and redirect it, and how these dynamics connect to broader social consequences including stigma and the risk of harmful behaviour.
A qualitative literature study design is employed,... (More) - Loneliness affects over one in five people worldwide, yet how it is experienced is shaped by social and cultural context in ways that research has only partially examined. For men, norms surrounding masculinity, emphasising emotional stoicism, self-reliance and the avoidance of vulnerability, create specific conditions under which loneliness develops, goes unacknowledged, and resists being addressed. This study examines male loneliness as a social and cultural phenomenon, asking how masculinity norms shape its experience, how digital environments amplify and redirect it, and how these dynamics connect to broader social consequences including stigma and the risk of harmful behaviour.
A qualitative literature study design is employed, drawing on peer-reviewed academic sources alongside media and documentary material. The analytical approach is hermeneutic, oriented toward interpretation and synthesis rather than causal explanation.
The study finds that male loneliness is not incidental to masculine norms but structurally produced by them, through the suppression of emotional expression, the surface-level nature of male friendship, and a dating paradox in which men are socialised into ideals that contemporary relationships no longer reward. When unaddressed, this loneliness can be redirected through digital environments and ideological ecosystems, particularly the manosphere, into organised grievance. A five-step pathway is identified, running from loneliness through shame, externalised anger, ideological capture and network entrenchment. The study concludes that effective responses must match the structural scale of the conditions producing the problem. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9237930
- author
- Berséus, Ellen LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SOCK10 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Male loneliness, masculinity norms, hegemonic masculinity, stigma, manosphere, radicalisation, social isolation
- language
- English
- id
- 9237930
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-15 14:44:23
- date last changed
- 2026-07-02 11:26:20
@misc{9237930,
abstract = {{Loneliness affects over one in five people worldwide, yet how it is experienced is shaped by social and cultural context in ways that research has only partially examined. For men, norms surrounding masculinity, emphasising emotional stoicism, self-reliance and the avoidance of vulnerability, create specific conditions under which loneliness develops, goes unacknowledged, and resists being addressed. This study examines male loneliness as a social and cultural phenomenon, asking how masculinity norms shape its experience, how digital environments amplify and redirect it, and how these dynamics connect to broader social consequences including stigma and the risk of harmful behaviour.
A qualitative literature study design is employed, drawing on peer-reviewed academic sources alongside media and documentary material. The analytical approach is hermeneutic, oriented toward interpretation and synthesis rather than causal explanation.
The study finds that male loneliness is not incidental to masculine norms but structurally produced by them, through the suppression of emotional expression, the surface-level nature of male friendship, and a dating paradox in which men are socialised into ideals that contemporary relationships no longer reward. When unaddressed, this loneliness can be redirected through digital environments and ideological ecosystems, particularly the manosphere, into organised grievance. A five-step pathway is identified, running from loneliness through shame, externalised anger, ideological capture and network entrenchment. The study concludes that effective responses must match the structural scale of the conditions producing the problem.}},
author = {{Berséus, Ellen}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The Loneliness Trap: How Masculinity Norms Produce Male Isolation and Its Social Consequences}},
year = {{2026}},
}