Research misconduct complaints and institutional logics: The case of Hans Eysenck and the British Psychological Society

Men's baldness stigma: A mixed methods international survey

Men's baldness can be structurally stigmatized. For example, commercialized psychology research medicalizes it as a distressing "disease." A mixed-methods survey on baldness stigma among 357 balding men (49% from Central- and South- America, Africa, Asia) was conducted. Qualitative and quantitative responses were content analyzed into two approximate sets: those (1) impacted by baldness stigma versus (2) those resisting baldness stigma. (1) The former included about half who had internalized baldness stigma agreeing it was disadvantageous (44%) and reporting distress (39-45% e.g. "[I] dread the future"). Participants reported baldness was stigmatized structurally (68%; e.g. "[it's a] humiliating image") and were attempting to combat their baldness largely via "treatments" (57%). (2) The latter participant response set resisted baldness stigma by reporting minimal distress, and structural stigma whilst accepting baldness (33-61%). Psychosocial and evidence-based support is needed to help some men resist baldness stigmatization.

Psychology's medicalization of male baldness

Male baldness is physically benign though it is increasingly described as a "disease" based on claims that it is profoundly distressing. The medicalization of baldness was assessed using data extracted from a review of 37 male baldness psychosocial impact studies. Findings revealed most studies likely had commercial influences (78%), represented baldness as a disease (77%), were conducted on biased samples (68%), and advocated for baldness products/services (60%), omitting their limitations (68%). Health psychologists should challenge baldness medicalization so that men can make informed choices about what, if anything, they do with their baldness.