The achievement of masculinity through energy-drink consumption: Experimental evidence supporting a closer look at the popularity of energy drinks among men.

We used self-completion theory to examine whether exposure to concepts of masculinity increased the desire for energy drinks and whether the use of energy drinks contributed to the achievement of a masculine sense of self. In Experiment 1, participants were randomly assigned to receive either a masculine or a neutral prime via a scrambled-sentence task. The results showed that participants exposed to concepts related to masculinity were more likely than controls to choose an energy drink as a reward for participation. In Experiment 2, participants were randomly assigned to groups differing with respect to bogus feedback provided about masculinity: low (threatened), high (affirmed), or no feedback (control). The second experiment found that participants whose masculinity was threatened consumed more of the energy drinks in a taste test than the controls, whereas those whose masculinity was affirmed consumed less of the energy drinks than the controls. The current research suggests that reminders of masculinity may increase the desire for energy drinks, and energy-drink consumption seems to enable men to regulate their personal sense of masculinity. The notion of masculine self-completion may provide a useful framework for explaining the popularity of energy drinks among men and the use of other addictive substances related to the symbolic self-completion of masculinity.