Meat & Potatoes, Not Memes & Crypto: The Top Issues for Men Are The Boring Basics

September 25, 2024

KEY FINDINGS

A significantly higher share of men than women believe that cancel culture is real, but the majority of men do not hold extreme views on culture war issues and gender-related matters, nor do they prioritize those issues.
The most important issues to male voters are concrete: the economy and prices, Social Security and Medicare, lower taxes on income and capital gains, national security, and affordability; the least important issues to them are more abstract: cryptocurrency, transgender issues, and feminism.
Men trust Vice President Kamala Harris more on abortion, climate change, the environment, and transgender issues; but men trust former President Donald Trump more on inflation, business regulations, national security, foreign policy, and immigration—with immigration the issue on which men trust Trump the most compared to Harris.

Blueprint’s latest poll examines men’s political priorities, policy preferences, and views on contentious social issues, as well as their opinions of elected officials and celebrities. The survey reveals that, while men’s views are slightly more conservative than women on hot-button culture war issues and policy preferences, most men do not hold extreme views on such matters and their primary concerns are bread-and-butter issues: the economy, prices, immigration, and taxes. It’s the mainstream policy issues that appear to be driving gender polarization about the candidates, rather than men’s extreme culture war beliefs.

The poll finds:

Men, in general, are less progressive than women and are more likely to believe that Democrats are ideologically extreme, particularly regarding immigration, the economy, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). However, recent political issues often framed as priorities for men are of low salience to them compared to other topics. For instance, cryptocurrency policy and transgender and LGBTQ+ issues are of particularly low importance relative to more traditional political matters. Conventional, longstanding issues in the political arena—such as the economy, Social Security and Medicare, taxes, and the military—are more salient to male voters.
Men do not agree with the most extreme statements on gender and sexuality, such as the idea that most sexual assault allegations are false or that society has gone too far in accommodating women. The conservative—but not retrograde—views of male voters are most evident in the survey data on their policy priorities, which problems they view as legitimate problems, and their opinions on various celebrities.
Additionally, Vice President Kamala Harris’s vulnerabilities among men are on immigration, the economy, inflation, national security, and taxes. However, men trust her more than former President Donald Trump on transgender issues and abortion, suggesting that a message focusing on foundational political issues rather than one that engaging with the latest male-dominated debates would be most effective in winning them over.
While women see the Republican Party as becoming more extreme (42% Republicans more extreme vs. 30% Democrats), men see Democrats as becoming more extreme than Republicans (38% Democrats, 34% Republicans). Men also agree with the critique that the Democratic Party “Has moved too far to the left” (55%, 31%, +24).

“Our new polling makes it clear that while men are sympathetic to ‘manosphere’ culture war issues, that doesn’t mean they care deeply about these issues or that it’s driving their voting behavior and opinions on politics,” said Blueprint lead pollster Evan Roth Smith. “A compelling message to men is one that addresses their concerns on ‘meat and potatoes’ issues where they’re drifting rightward, like the economy and immigration—not one that engages with the issue du jour inserted into political discourse by right-leaning internet personalities and politically outspoken celebrities.”

TOP PRIORITIES ARE CONVENTIONAL ISSUES

The most important issues for men are the basics—economy, Social Security, and inflation—while the least important issues for men are topics of the American culture war, such as political correctness, cancel culture, transgender issues, and cryptocurrency.

Most important issues: Specifically, when asked to identify the most important issue when pitted against others, male voters most frequently selected the economy (78% of the time), followed by Social Security (71%), inflation (70%), jobs (63%), and healthcare (64%). Other commonly chosen issues include government spending and the deficit (62%), national security and foreign policy (59%), corruption (59%), abortion (58%), crime (56%), and tax policy (56%).
Least important issues: At the back of the pack for men’s prioritization are cryptocurrency (13%), transgender issues (17%), cancel culture (27%), political correctness (31%), and the challenges faced by men and boys (32%). Other issues that are relatively less important to the male electorate include climate change and the environment (37%), business regulation (37%), the Israel-Palestine conflict (41%), men and boys falling behind in education and jobs (44%), guns (45%), and the opioid epidemic (49%).

Men’s beliefs about what constitutes a “real problem” for men and boys also show a focus on concrete, standard political issues over more abstract, culture war, and male-oriented concerns.

Homelessness (78%), substance abuse (76%), higher suicide rates (74%), the opioid epidemic (74%), and the lack of good jobs (66%) are among the phenomena that the highest share of issues that men identify as real problems.
Among the issues that are important to the fewest men are difficulty in forming romantic relationships (49%), expectations of traditional masculinity (47%), and expectations of what a man should provide for his family (44%). Other low-priority concerns include feminism (36%), the shift from blue-collar to white-collar work (32%), and conscription (31%).

In the poll’s conjoint analysis—which measures the relative importance of various candidate attributes by presenting respondents with a pair of candidates with different beliefs and asking which candidate they prefer—male voters’ top three most frequently selected candidate beliefs are “believes in lower taxes on income and capital gains” (60%, +10 preference effect, a measure of relative performance compared to the average attribute), “believes we should prosecute companies for illegal price gouging” (59%, +9 preference effect), and “supports a strong national defense and a robust military” (59%, +9 preference effect).

By pulling in the most popular occupation, the most popular belief, and the most popular issue position, the three candidate profiles for male voters are:

Firefighter. Believes in lower taxes on income and capital gains. Protecting Social Security and Medicare.
Social Worker. Believes we should prosecute companies for illegal price gouging. Keeping Housing affordable.
Farmer. Supports a strong national defense and a robust military. Maintaining protections for those with pre-existing health conditions.

On issue positions specifically, the presence of “protecting Social Security and Medicare” gives any profile in which it is included a 15-percentage point boost. “Keeping housing affordable” earns a 9-percentage point boost, and “maintaining protections for those with pre-existing health conditions” earns a 9-percentage point boost.

Notably, mentions of cryptocurrency tested among the worst attributes for a candidate, with “cryptocurrency executive” being the least popular occupation for a candidate and “supporting cryptocurrency innovation” being the least popular issue position.

Other commonly prioritized attributes for male voters include believing that labor rights and fair wages are fundamental to society (+9 preference effect), supporting small businesses (+8), advocating for accessible and affordable education for all (+7), and believing that economic systems should prioritize fairness and equality (+7). They also favor candidates who believe taxing the richest Americans can help reduce inequality and the deficit (+6).

The candidate beliefs that male voters are less likely to support include “believes that there’s too much focus on identity politics” (46%, -4 preference effect), “believes there’s an overemphasis on diversity at the expense of merit and competence” (45%, -5 preference effect), “believes we need to end wokeism” (44%, -6 preference effect), “believes we should prioritize healthier diets and physical health” (44%, -6 preference effect), and “believes that cancel culture has gone too far” (43%, -7 preference effect).

Other issue priorities that a significant number of men identified as compelling include reducing the federal deficit and debt (56%, +6), prosecuting criminals to reduce crime (57%, +6), lowering the cost of prescription drugs (55%), and expanding access to affordable childcare (50%, +3).

ON CULTURE WAR ISSUES, “MANOSPHERE”-LIKE VIEWS EXIST, BUT ARE NOT PERVASIVE

On various questions related to masculinity, cancel culture, and gender roles, men express significantly more conservative views than women, but very few male voters support the most extreme viewpoints on these issues.

In our measure of opinions on two competing views of cancel culture—a narrow plurality of men agree that cancel culture is a real problem.

(44% agree) “Cancel culture is a real problem, and it’s holding men and boys back and silencing our political discourse. People are losing their jobs because of social media posts and jokes and are being permanently canceled just for questioning orthodoxy.”
(40% agree) “Cancel culture isn’t a real problem. The real problem is racism, sexism, and homophobia. Men aren’t being canceled for having politically incorrect views—they’re being held accountable for bigotry.”
Conversely, a plurality of women, 48%, say that cancel culture isn’t a real problem and that the real issues are racism, sexism, and homophobia, while 31% say it is a real problem (-17 “real problem”).

The narrow plurality among men, coupled with the 21-point gap between men and women, demonstrates that while men and women voters have different views on the topic, men are by no means uniformly concerned about cancel culture.

Additionally, 53% of men agree with the statement, “Cancel culture is a real phenomenon. Men can lose their jobs or have their lives wrecked because people can’t take a joke or tolerate opinions that are different from their own,” while 31% of male voters agree with the opposing view: “Cancel culture is fake. Some people are just afraid of accountability. We are making progress toward ensuring society works for everyone—that’s something to celebrate, not be afraid of.” While a decisive majority of men agree with the first statement, a narrow plurality of women, 39%, agree with it, and 36% say cancel culture is fake.

When asked if they agree or disagree with various statements related to gender, the ones that the highest share of men agree with are:

“It’s good that society has made strides to be more inclusive of women” (62% agree, 10% disagree, +52).
“A lot of good men have been hurt by unfair or untrue allegations” (60% agree, 26% disagree, +34).
“Traditional male roles and values are no longer respected” (54% agree, 21% disagree, +33).
“Men are often punished unfairly for innocent comments people misunderstand” (52% agree, 18% disagree, +34).

Notably, the statements with which low shares of men agree are the more extreme views, such as,

“We have gone too far in accommodating women” (31% agree, 36% disagree, -5).
“A majority of sexual assault allegations are fake” (22% agree, 44% disagree, -22).

The statements with the most significant gender gaps between male and female voters are:

“Men face unfair judgment and criticism for expressing their opinions” (20-point gap between men and women),
“Men are unfairly blamed for most of society’s problems” (19-point gap).
“Feminists don’t want equality, they want to dominate men” (19-point gap).

Men hold traditionalist views when it comes to lamenting the decline of traditional marriage and the proliferation of dating apps, but they have positive feelings about developments in gender parity. The gender-related developments over the last 50 years that men most view as positive are:

“Men and women doing more equal shares of childcare” (66% good, 6% bad).
“More women having jobs outside the home” (56% good, 9% bad).
“Workplace sexual harassment trainings” (49% good, 14% bad).

The gender-related developments men see as the worst are:

“The declining rate of traditional marriage” (12% good, 48% bad)
“The emergence of dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble” (18% good, 29% bad).
“The MeToo movement” (24% good, 33% bad), and “The passage of Title IX” (23% good, 12% bad).

WHO MEN LIKE, DON’T LIKE AND TRUST: POLITICIANS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

Trust: Notably, on two key gender-related matters, men give the upper hand to Harris: 6% more men trust Harris (48%) on abortion than trust Trump (42%), and 5% more men trust Harris (44%) on transgender issues than trust Trump (39%). Men also give Harris a 4-point edge (45%) over Trump (41%) on climate change and the environment. Harris and Trump are evenly matched on healthcare, Social Security and Medicare, education, and political correctness.

Trump has his largest advantage over Harris on immigration; 37% of male voters trust Harris more on immigration, while 55% trust Trump more (Harris -18). Other issues where male voters place more trust in Trump than Harris include national security and foreign policy (40% Harris, 53% Trump, Harris -13), inflation (40% Harris, 52% Trump, Harris -12), Israel and Palestine (37% Harris, 49% Trump, Harris -12), business regulations (40% Harris, 52% Trump, Harris -12), and the issues men and boys are facing (35% Harris, 47% Trump, Harris -12).

While men trust Harris over Trump on just three of the 27 issues tested, women trust the vice president on every single issue, including immigration and the economy.

Popularity: Among active politicians, former President Donald Trump is the most popular with men at 49% favorable and 47% unfavorable (+2), followed by Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (40% favorable, 40% unfavorable, +0), Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz (36% favorable, 40% unfavorable, -4), Kamala Harris (45% favorable, 52% unfavorable, -7), Joe Biden (39% favorable, 58% unfavorable, -19), and Mitt Romney (31% favorable, 50% unfavorable, -19).

There are significant gender gaps in views of the two major party candidates.

While 49% of men have a favorable opinion of Donald Trump, just 33% of women do—a 16-point difference.
A similar gender gap applies to Trump’s running mate, JD Vance; 40% of men have a favorable opinion of Vance, compared to just 25% of women—a 15-point gap.
On the other side of the aisle, 45% of men have a favorable opinion of Harris, while 60% of women view her favorably—a 15-point gender gap.
Notably, the largest gender gap among the two major party tickets is on opinions of Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz, with 36% of men having a favorable opinion of Walz compared to 57% of women—a 21-point gap.

Ideology: While women see the Republican Party as becoming more extreme (42% Republicans more extreme vs. 30% Democrats), men see Democrats as becoming more extreme than Republicans (38% Democrats, 34% Republicans).

Forty-five percent of men believe the ideas of the Democratic Party are “extreme and dangerous” (compared to 38% of women), while 42% say the same about the Republican Party (compared to 49% of women).

44% of men describe Trump’s ideas as extreme and dangerous (compared to 53% of women), while 46% feel the same about Harris (compared to 38% of women). 62% of men characterize Harris’s ideas as extreme, while 49% of women describe them that way—a 13-point gap. 38% of men describe Harris’s ideas as mainstream, compared to 51% of women—a 13-point gap.

Male voters view themselves as slightly closer to Trump ideologically than to the Democrats;

56% of men think both Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are more liberal than they are, while 50% say that Trump is more conservative than they are.
A plurality of male voters, 31%, say that Trump’s views are most similar to their own, while 27% say the same of Harris.
When asked which party has become more extreme, 38% of men believe the Democratic Party has become too extreme, while 34% of men say the Republican Party has become too extreme.

Knocks on Parties: The most persuasive critiques to men of the Democratic Party are:

That it is “overly concerned about wokeness and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)” (58% say it describes the party well, 28% say it does not, +30 net)
“Has moved too far to the left” (55%, 31%, +24)
“Ignores the concerns of rural Americans” (54%, 33%, +21),
“Wants to restrict personal freedoms such as gun rights and free speech too much” (54%, 34%, +20)
“Is too focused on helping immigrants over citizens” (54%, 33%, +21)
“Supports socialism and radical economic policies” (54%, 32%, +22).

The least pervasive concerns among male voters about the Democratic Party are that it’s too focused on the patriarchy (39%, 36%, +3) and opposes cryptocurrency too much (31%, 27%, +4). Notably, a plurality but fewer than half of male voters think the statements “demonizes straight white men” (48%, 37% disagree) and “believes men are the enemy” (47%, 36% disagree) accurately describe the Democratic Party.

The most persuasive critiques of the Republican Party are that it:

“Wants to prohibit the consumption of recreational drugs” (58% of men say this describes the Republican Party well)
“Pushes policies that benefit the rich and corporations” (57%),
“Opposes abortion too much” (55%),
“Wants to restrict personal freedoms such as abortion too much” (54%), and “is hostile toward LGBTQ rights” (52%).

The least persuasive critique is that the Republican Party “hates America and patriotism” (31%), followed by “hates women and wants to control them” (39%), is “full of misogynists” (40%), and “opposes individual liberty” (40%).

WHO MEN LIKE AND DON’T LIKE: CELEBRITIES

Men’s views on celebrities indicate that relatively few men favor figures who frequently make inflammatory or radical statements on gender, sex, race, and masculinity issues, and that a higher share view favorably celebrities with broader appeal who—while possessing conventionally masculine markers— have profiles that are less overtly political or provocative and do not deliver reactionary public statements on culture war issues.

Examples: Shaquille O’Neal is the most popular celebrity among men (79% favorable, 10% unfavorable, +69 net), followed by Samuel L. Jackson (76% favorable, 12% unfavorable, +64), Peyton Manning (71% favorable, 10% unfavorable, +61), Robert Downey Jr. (70% favorable, 15% unfavorable, +55), Matthew McConaughey (67% favorable, 15% unfavorable, +52), and Arnold Schwarzenegger (69% favorable, 18% unfavorable, +51).

In contrast, among the least popular celebrities among men are Tucker Carlson (37% favorable, 36% unfavorable, +1), Andrew Tate (13% favorable, 18% unfavorable, -5), Lex Fridman (5% favorable, 12% unfavorable, -7), Logan Paul (19% favorable, 32% unfavorable, -13), and Alex Jones (23% favorable, 46% unfavorable, -23). Kanye West is the least popular, with 27% favorable and 63% unfavorable, resulting in a -37 net rating.

Men’s views on other notable celebrities:

Dave Chappelle: 63% favorable, 17% unfavorable (+46)
Joe Rogan: 46% favorable, 23% unfavorable (+23)
Dave Portnoy: 15% favorable, 11% unfavorable (+4)
Elon Musk: 52% favorable, 41% unfavorable (+11)

ABOUT THE POLL

This poll of 1,781 registered voters (1,200 men and 581 women) nationally was conducted from Sept. 9 to Sept. 13. This survey was weighted to education, gender, race, survey engagement, and 2020 election results; it was conducted in English, and had a margin of error of ±3.5 percentage points.

Full toplines are available here; full crosstabs are available upon request.

PRESS CONTACTS

Alyssa Cass
alyssa@slingshotstrat.com
347-992-5006

Evan Roth Smith
evan@slingshotstrat.com
646-240-0096