In a recent study, it addresses the question of how men develop their ideas, beliefs and behaviors in regards to masculinity. The research found that young men tend to "copy" their fathers' masculinity. Some men prefer to express their masculinity in more traditional forms, whereas others tend to have a more progressive outlook on masculinity. In the study, it found that young men who have fathers that express their masculinity in more traditional forms tend to do so themselves.

The data was analyzed from 839 pairs of young men, aged from 15 to 20 years old, and their fathers. They participated in a survey that asked a series of questions ranging from beliefs on winning and dominance over others, their take on showing emotions and the importance of appearing heterosexual. These types of questions offered insight to researchers on issues that surrounded the topic of masculinity and were able to see if the men participating adopted a more traditional or progressive type of masculinity. The survey found that, on average, young men tend to have a slightly more traditional view of how they express their masculinity when compared to their fathers. On a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 represents high conformity to traditional masculinity and 0 represents low conformity, it was found that the average score for young men was 44.1, where their fathers had an average score of 41. With further research, analysts were able to discover that young men who scored highly when it comes to traditional masculinity tended to have fathers who also scored highly. This finding gave researchers a clear understanding that young men tend to "copy" their father's masculinity that is modeled to them.