Researchers have long known that problem drinking increases a man’s likelihood of being violent towards his wife or girlfriend, but a new study published today by the scientific journal Addiction suggests that this relationship between drinking and violence is also affected by the man’s attitude toward women’s equality; that is, toxic masculinity also plays a role. In a study of men in low and middle income countries, heavy drinking males were more likely to commit violence against their wives and girlfriends (intimate partner violence, or IPV) if they held sexist rather than egalitarian attitudes about women.
