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Sex differences in moral judgements across 67 countries
Mohammad Atari1,2, Mark H C Lai1, Morteza Dehghani1,2,3
1Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|October 21, 2020
Summary
Women consistently prioritize care, fairness, and purity in moral judgments across cultures, with these sex differences amplified in individualistic, gender-equal societies. Loyalty and authority show negligible sex differences.
Area of Science:
- Cross-cultural psychology
- Evolutionary psychology
- Moral psychology
Background:
- Existing research on sex differences in morality often uses limited cross-cultural data.
- Large-scale international studies are needed to understand cultural variations in moral judgments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To conduct the first large-scale examination of sex differences in moral judgments across diverse cultures.
- To investigate how cultural factors influence sex differences in moral judgments.
Main Methods:
- Utilized two international samples (N=348,660) from 67 and 19 countries.
- Employed Moral Foundations Theory to conceptualize moral judgments.
- Applied Bayesian multi-level modeling to analyze data, accounting for cultural non-independence.
Main Results:
- Women consistently scored higher than men on Care, Fairness, and Purity foundations.
- Sex differences in Loyalty and Authority were minimal and varied significantly across cultures.
- Larger sex differences in moral judgments were observed in individualist, Western, and gender-equal societies.
Conclusions:
- Sex differences in moral judgments are culturally variable and influenced by societal factors like individualism and gender equality.
- Findings contribute to understanding the origins of sex differences and cultural variations in morality.
- Results have implications for moral and evolutionary psychology theories.
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