Gender Differences in Double Standards

Iris Vermeir () and P. van Kenhove ()
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P. van Kenhove: -

Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium from Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Abstract: The purpose of the present study is to investigate gender differences in the use of double standards in ethical judgements of questionable conduct instigated by business or consumers. We investigate if consumers are more critical towards unethical corporate versus consumer actions and if these double standards depend on the gender of the respondent. In the first study, we compared evaluations of four specific unethical actions (cfr. DePaulo, 1987) instigated by either the consumer or the corporation. In a second study, we investigated the perception of some general consumer and corporate (un)ethical actions in addition to DePaulo’s unethical scenarios. Both researches show that females use less double standards when it comes to their own (un)ethical behaviour compared to corporate (un)ethical actions. Furthermore, gender differences in the use of double standards depend on the type of unethical behaviour. Limitations and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Keywords: Consumer ethics; double standards; gender; ethical evaluations; ethical beliefs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2007-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mkt
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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http://wps-feb.ugent.be/Papers/wp_07_467.pdf (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: Gender Differences in Double Standards (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rug:rugwps:07/467

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