[1]If you thought men who are skilled at physical jobs would be much more willing to indulge in do-it-yourself home improvement than knowledge workers, it is far from the truth, according to a forthcoming study in Journal of Consumer Research.
Researchers find that men whose professions afford them the skills to handily fix a sink or renovate the living room are actually the least likely to embrace such tasks since they think of it to be an extension of their jobs. Knowledge workers, on the other hand, might not be good at DIY, yet they try it out more willingly as a way of demonstrating how manly they can be.
The study was based on individual interviews with more than 100 men who were each given a cultural capital score based on criteria such as occupation, family upbringing and formal education.
Men employed as physicians, scientists, professors and other such jobs were ambitious about acquiring DIY home improvement experiences, which they felt set them apart from fellow knowledge workers. “They feel themselves transforming, leaving behind the stresses and burdens associated with knowledge work. They find that working on DIY projects opens a therapeutic valve. In the back of their minds, they become the Working Man,” says lead author Risto Moisio, assistant professor of marketing at California State University, Long Beach.
Men employed as plumbers, landscapers, maintenance supervisors and other ‘low cultural capital’ jobs instead saw DIY home improvement as a chore.
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