Ryan Gosling’s Face Has Been Scientifically Proven To Make Men More Supportive Of Feminism

In very important science news, researchers in Canada have found that men are more likely to identify with feminist beliefs when Ryan Gosling says them — a.k.a we now have conclusive evidence that straight men are also susceptible to his magic.

The study used pictures of Gosling overlaid with captions about feminist theories from a Tumblr page called Feminist Ryan Gosling.

The page, created back in 2011 by writer Danielle Henderson as a way to memorise the gender studies theorists she was learning about at college, is full of pictures of Gosling staring straight into your soul, and captions intellectual enough to make any feminist swoon. Her book has already sold over 250,000 copies, because of images like this:

The study, entitled ‘The Effect of Ryan Gosling Feminist Memes on Feminist Identification and Endorsement of Feminist Beliefs‘, surveyed 99 participants about their views on various feminist issues. Men who were shown the memes “evidenced significantly more endorsement for radical feminism” than men who weren’t.

A picture of Ryan Gosling also made them 10% more likely to agree with statements like “men use abortion laws and reproductive technology to control women’s lives.” Female participants, who were probably already supportive of feminism and/or had a higher tolerance to Ryan Gosling by now, tested consistently across both groups.

The researchers also suggested that their findings mean “popular internet memes can serve more than an entertainment function in that they can also serve as a persuasive device for relaying ideological information.” In simpler terms, memes can influence people’s opinions.

Maybe we should use this knowledge to our advantage and get more people supporting other big issues – Civil Rights George Clooney perhaps, or Marriage Equality Benedict Cumberbatch?

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Images via Feminist Ryan Gosling.