New research indicates that millennial men may be rejecting traditional views of manhood – in their attitudes, values, language, behavior, relationships, careers, and their definition of success.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia, Canada, surveyed 630 milennial-aged men, aged 15-29, from Western Canada. Results published in April 2018, in the journal Psychology of Men & Masculinity, showed that the most stongly endorsed masculine value was selflessness, with 91% of participants responding that men should help other people.

And 80% said that men should give back to the community. Openness also ranked highly, with 88% saying that men should be open to new ideas, new experiences, and new people. Health ranked highly too, with 88% saying that men should be healthy or in good shape. Traditional male values, such as physical strength (75%) and autonomy (78%), ranked lower in favour of intellectual strength (87%), emotional strength (83%) and independence (88%).

Lead researcher, John Oliffe, a nursing professor who leads the men’s health research program, said that Canadian men ‘seem to be holding masculine values that are distinctly different from those of previous generations. These values may run counter to long-standing claims that young men are typically hedonistic, hypercompetitive, and that they risk or neglect their health.’

A 2017 study from the University of Missouri in America, published in the journal, Sustainability, documented that millennial males and females will leave their job when they experience a ‘values gap’ in the culture of the workplace, particularly in terms of sustainability issues. Millennials tend to ‘job hop’ if they felt that their values were not reflected in the workplace, noted doctoral student Rachel LoMonaco-Benzing and Jung Ha-Brookshire, an associate dean of research and graduate studies, in the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences.

The MU researchers said that millennials have been raised with a sense of pro-social, pro-environment values, and they are looking to be engaged. If they find that a company doesn’t honour these values and contributions, many either will try to change the culture or find employment elsewhere.”