Why do some security force personnel condemn misconduct while others do not? Sabrina Karim (Cornell University) presents research examining how hyper-masculine identity primes shape security force personnel’s tolerance for misconduct.
Misconduct is commonplace within security forces, yet personnel vary in their attitudes toward it. Why do some personnel tolerate misconduct while others do not? We argue that exposure to hyper-masculine identity primes activates concerns about cohesion and hierarchy, which increases tolerance for misconduct. We test this argument using two survey experiments in what is, to our knowledge, the largest cross-national survey of security force personnel (N=4,429). We find that when personnel (men and women) receive feedback about their masculine identity—being told they are either more or less masculine than their peers—they view misconduct as less serious and are less likely to report it. Preferences regarding punishment shift depending on the type of feedback prime. We also find that visual hyper-masculine primes do not affect attitudes toward misconduct. Together, these results suggest that hyper-masculine identity primes can increase tolerance for misconduct, but not all primes shift beliefs in the same way.
This event is part of the International Security Research Colloquium hosted by the Centre for International Security.
Speaker
Sabrina Karim is an Associate Professor in the department of Government at Cornell University. Her research focuses on international involvement in security assistance to post-conflict states, gender reforms in peacekeeping and domestic security sectors, security force restraint, and the relationship between gender and violence.
At Cornell, she directs the Gender and Security Sector Lab, with funding from Global Affairs Canada to conduct surveys of military and police personnel globally. In 2021, she won the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award, “The Domestic and International Politics of Global Police Violence,” which is a systematic exploration of how politics affects global police violence.
During the Spring of 2026, she is the Berthold Beitz Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, where she is writing a book on police restraint during revolutionary moments.