thesis statement about double standards

Effectiviology

Double Standards: What They Are and How to Respond to Them

A double standard is a principle or policy that is applied in a different manner to similar things, without proper justification. Essentially, this means that a double standard occurs when two or more things, such as individuals or groups, are treated differently, when they should be treated the same way.

• For example, a double standard can involve treating two similar employees differently after they do the same thing, by punishing one and rewarding the other, even though there is no valid reason to do so.

Because double standards can have serious consequences, it’s important to understand them. As such, in the following article you will learn more about double standards, and see what you can do in order to respond to their use, as well as what you can do to avoid using them yourself.

Examples of double standards

One example of a double standard is a teacher who treats two similar students differently for no good reason, by grading one of them much more harshly, simply because they personally dislike that student.

Another example of a double standard is a person who criticizes others for doing something, even though this person does the same thing regularly and doesn’t see an issue with what they do when they’re the ones doing it.

A famous literary example of double standards appears in George Orwell’s 1945 novel “ Animal Farm “, in which a group of animals decides to take over the farm where they live, so they can rule themselves instead of having humans rule over them. One of the core rules that the animals decide to follow is that “all animals are equal”. However, as time passes, the pigs gather power over the other animals, and give themselves preferential treatment in a variety of ways. Eventually, this culminates in the pigs revoking all the rules that the animals initially agreed on, in place of a single rule, which exemplifies the concept of double standards: “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”.

Another famous example of double standards appears in the Latin phrase “quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi” which can be translated as ‘‘what is permissible for Jove (who is also known as ‘Jupiter’, and who is the king of the gods in Roman mythology), is not permitted to cattle”. This concept has been described as being a double standard that is antithetical to the rule of law:

“[This phrase] has always seemed to me to symbolize the opposite of what I consider to be the rule of law. And the rule of law is what I perceive and consider judging to be about—at least it is why I went into judging rather than into some of the previous endeavors that Roger’s introduction of me laid out at some length. The rule of law means that, to the extent that fallible judges are capable of adhering to it, the expectation is that when you go before a court, the outcome depends on the merits of your case, not your political status, relation to the court, or other personal characteristics. It does not mean that the law is a mechanical enterprise—it cannot be. But it should mean that the judge will apply the same standards to the merits of your case, as to those of any other case, whatever the color of your skin or the content of your character.” — From “Challenges to the Rule of Law: Or, Quod Licet Jovi Non Licet Bovi”, by Danny J. Boggs, Chief Judge in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (2006)

Finally, additional examples of double standards appear in various other domains of life, in the actions of individuals and groups that practice various forms of favoritism and discrimination, such as sexism or racism. This involves judging or treating people differently based on certain traits , such as gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, age, social class, or socioeconomic status.

Note: when double standards are applied with regard to a particular trait, this is sometimes reflected in the way the double standards are referred to. This includes, for example, racial double standards , where people from different races are judged or treated differently , as well as gender-based double standards , where people of different genders are judged or treated differently , particularly when it comes to sexual behavior and relationships, a phenomenon that is also referred to as sexual double standards .

Who applies double standards

Double standards can be applied by individuals or groups, generally toward other individuals or groups. Examples of what double standards can look like in any of these situations include the following:

• An individual applying double standards toward individuals can involve, for example, a parent applying double standards toward their children, by treating similar behavior in an entirely different manner, based on which kid did it.
• An individual applying double standards toward groups can involve, for example, a manager applying double standards toward employees, by discriminating during the hiring process based on factors such as gender or race.
• A group applying double standards toward individuals can involve, for example, a media company applying double standards toward an activist, by attacking them for behavior that they praised in a different activist earlier on.
• A group applying double standards toward groups can involve, for example, a government applying double standards towards politicians as a whole, by being overly lenient toward them when it comes to criminal prosecution, compared to the treatment of regular citizens.

Note that when double standards are applied against a group, this can often take the form of double standards being applied against specific members of that group. Furthermore, when a group applies double standards toward others, it can either be because the group as a whole applies those double standards, or because key members of that group apply double standards on behalf of the group.

In addition, note that double standards can also be applied toward things other than individuals or groups. For example, someone might apply double standards when it comes to hobbies, by mocking a hobby for involving behaviors that this person thinks are fine when they’re a part of other hobbies. Similarly, someone might praise the attributes of a product made by a company that they like, even though this person criticizes those attributes when they appear in products made by competing companies.

Why people use double standards

People use double standards both intentionally and unintentionally, for various reasons.

Intentional use of double standards involves a conscious and active decision to apply them, and occurs primarily when people feel that the double standards in question could help them achieve some goal. This goal can involve things such as helping someone that they favor, hurting someone that they dislike, or making their arguments sound more persuasive.

Unintentional use of double standards doesn’t involve an active and conscious decision to apply them, though this doesn’t necessarily affect the outcome that using the double standard leads to. This unintentional use involves a failure to notice the double standard, and is generally driven by some motivation, often emotional in nature.

Accordingly, cognitive biases , which are systematic patterns of deviations from rationality, that occur due to the way our cognitive system works, often play a role when it comes to the unintentional use of double standards. A notable example of this is the confirmation bias , which is a cognitive bias that causes people to search for, favor, interpret, and recall information in a way that confirms their preexisting beliefs. This bias can lead people to apply double standards in many situations, such as by causing a person to judge the identical behavior of two individuals in a different manner, in order to confirm some preexisting impression of them.

When it comes to emotional motivators, there are many reasons why people apply double standards unintentionally. For example, people often apply double standards when it comes to how they judge their own behavior compared to the behavior of others , because they want to feel better about their actions. This means, for instance, that when it comes to judging some highly negative action, people might judge the action less harshly if they themself performed it, compared to if someone else had performed it, partly because they don’t want to feel bad about what they did.

Finally, note that cognitive biases and emotional motivations can also play a role when it comes to the intentional use of double standards. For example, someone experiencing the confirmation bias might be driven by the desire to prove that they were right in their assessment of a person, which could lead them to actively apply double standards, in a way that helps them do so.

Overall, people use double standards both intentionally and unintentionally. Intentional use of double standards is generally driven by the desire to achieve a certain outcome, while unintentional use of double standards is generally driven by emotional motivators, and often involves a failure to notice the double standards or understand that they’re problematic. However, both intentional and unintentional use of double standards can be emotional in nature, and both can lead to similar outcomes in practice.

Dealing with double standards

How to identify double standards.

To determine whether something that you’ve encountered is a double standard or not, there are two main things that you should consider:

• Are two (or more) things being treated differently?
• If there is a different treatment, is there a valid reason for it?

A double standard occurs when there is unequal treatment that’s not properly justified. This is important, because it means that unequal treatment of two or more things isn’t always a double standard, and can sometimes be reasonable.

For example, expecting better behavior from an adult than from a child is generally not a double standard, because the two types of individuals are different in a way that justifies the different expectations. Similarly, it can be reasonable to hold the actions of an elected official to a higher standard than those of a member of the public, because of the responsibility and power that they have.

As such, to make sure that some unequal treatment represents a double standard, ask yourself whether there is proper justification for this treatment. If necessary, you can also ask this of the person who is applying the unequal treatment, or of someone else who is relevant to the situation.

When doing this, it’s important to watch out for false equivalences , which occur when someone incorrectly asserts that two or more things are equivalent, simply because they share some characteristics, despite the fact that there are also notable differences between them. This is because false equivalences can cause you to mistakenly believe that a double standard is being applied, in situations where the things receiving unequal treatment are different in a way that merits this treatment.

When in doubt, apply the principle of charity , and don’t assume that a double standard is being used if there is a plausible alternative explanation, as long as it’s reasonable to do so. Furthermore, as long as it’s reasonable to do so, you should apply Hanlon’s razor , and operate under the assumption that the person using the double standard is doing so unintentionally.

How to respond to double standards

When responding to the use of double standards, the first step is to make sure that what you’re seeing is indeed a double standard, using the approach outlined in the previous section.

Then, the second step is often to ask the person who you believe is applying a double standard to explain their reasoning, if you haven’t already, and if doing so is reasonable in your circumstances.

This not only helps you determine whether they’re truly applying a double standard, but also gives you a better idea as to why they’re doing what they’re doing. Furthermore, in cases where the use of double standards is unintentional, this can give you the added advantage of possibly helping the person using the double standards realize that they’re doing so, particularly if you ask them to explain the rationale behind treating similar things in a different manner. In addition, in cases where the use of double standards is intentional, this can help you highlight the issues with that person’s reasoning.

Once you do this, you can then actively point out the logical and moral issues with the double standard, by showing that there is no proper justification for the unequal treatment in question. When doing this, you generally also want to help the person applying the double standard internalize the issue with what they’re doing, and negate their motivation for applying the double standard in the first place.

To achieve this, you will often need relevant debiasing techniques , and particularly when the double standards in question are the result of an underlying cognitive bias. For example, one bias that often plays a role when it comes to double standards is the empathy gap , which is a cognitive bias that makes it difficult for people to account for the manner in which differences in mental states affect the way that they and other people make decisions. If you see someone applying double standards as a result of this bias, you can ask them to think of situations where they experienced a similar double standard being applied toward them. Similarly, you can ask them to consider how they would feel someone applied a similar double standard toward them, or toward someone that they care about.

Finally, note that in some cases, you might be unable to get someone to stop applying a double standard, no matter what you do. If this happens, your response should depend on the circumstance at hand. For example, if the person in question is someone that you barely know or care about, you might choose to simply stop interacting with them, and let them know why. Conversely, if the person in question is your superior at work, you might choose to go to your company’s Human Resources department, in order to get them to resolve the issue.

Overall, when responding to the use of double standards, you should first ensure that you’re indeed dealing with a double standard, preferably by asking the person applying the standard to explain their reasoning. Then, you should point out the logical and moral issues with the double standard in question, help the person applying the standard internalize those issues, and negate their motivation for applying the standard in the first place. If none of these solutions work, you should pick an alternative one based on the circumstance, such as escalating the issue to someone who can resolve it, or cutting ties with the person who’s applying the double standard.

How to avoid applying double standards yourself

To avoid applying double standards yourself, you should make sure that whenever you treat two or more similar things differently, you have proper justification for doing so.

Though this might sound simple, it can often be difficult to do, especially in situations where you’re applying the double standards toward only one thing at a time. For example, this can involve treating someone harshly for making a mistake simply because you dislike them, in a situation where you haven’t seen anyone else make a similar mistake recently, which can make it difficult for you to notice that your response is too harsh.

As such, to avoid using double standards, whenever you find yourself thinking, speaking, or acting in an especially favorable or harsh manner toward someone or something, you should ask yourself to justify your reasoning, and consider whether you’ve treated similar things in a different manner under similar circumstances. The more significant the outcomes of your thoughts, statements, or actions, in terms of factors such as the impact they will have on others, the more important it is to do this.

If you find yourself applying a double standard, you can generally use the same techniques to resolve it as you would when dealing with someone else’s use of double standards. Most notably, this involves internalizing the logical and moral issues with your reasoning, and using various debiasing techniques to help mitigate the emotional drives and reasoning errors that cause you to apply double standards in the first place.

Note that you should be especially wary of applying double standards toward yourself compared to others. This is a common phenomenon that takes many forms, and occurs when you treat yourself more favorably or more harshly than you treat others, for no good reason.

When it comes to avoiding this issue, you should make sure to watch out for the egocentric bias , which is a cognitive bias that causes people to rely too heavily on their own point of view when they examine events in their life or when they try to see things from other people’s perspective. To deal with it, you can use appropriate debiasing techniques, such as considering how events that you’re in are perceived by other people, rather than just yourself, and trying to view those events from an external perspective.

Related concepts

Hypocrisy involves thinking, speaking, or acting in a way that contradicts one’s other thoughts, statements, or actions, especially when the individual in question is claiming to be superior in some way, such as morally.

Hypocrisy often involves the use of double standards. For example, a hypocrite might attack someone for acting a certain way, even though the hypocrite acted the same way when they were in a similar situation.

Hypocrisy is generally viewed negatively, though the issues associated with it can sometimes be mitigated if the hypocrite openly acknowledges their hypocrisy, and provides proper justification for it.

The etymology and history of the term ‘double standard’

The term ‘double standard’ was initially used to refer to the concept of bimetallism , which is the use of two metals (usually gold and silver) as monetary units, at a fixed ratio to each other. The term appears in writing in this sense as early as 1764, in the “ Ames Library Pamphlet Collection ” (Volume 16, Issues 1-9), which is a “collection of monographs related to Indian history and civilization, as well as the British experience in India, from the 18th through the 20th centuries”.

Later, people began using the term in other senses. For example, an 1834 article contains the following excerpt:

“The chief objection, however, to the use of oaths is, that it establishes a double standard of veracity: it recognizes the principle that it is possible by some human contrivance to increase the obligation to tell the truth; a principle in our opinion utterly false, and fraught with the most pernicious consequences.” — In an 1834 review of James Endell Tyler’s “Origin, Nature and History of Oaths”, written in The Law Magazine (Volume 13)

The use of the term in the moral sense, which is closer to how it’s used today, appeared at a later stage, with the earliest known instance of it in writing appearing in an 1872 article:

“Mrs. Butler traced the present inequality in the requirements of society with regard to male and female morality to the natural tendency of the stronger to obtain the victory of the weaker… This tendency has led men to impose a strict rule of continence and fidelity upon women, while it allowed license to their own sex… The Christian religion sets up an equal standard of morality for both sexes; it proclaims an absolute rule of personal purity on all alike, and as if to correct, with scourging, the falsehood of the existing double standard, Christ threw the whole weight of His authority into His rebukes of male profligacy, while with infinite tenderness, He restored the slave of man’s lust to her place among the free.” — From an 1872 article titled “Unjust Judgments on Subjects of Morality”, written in The Ecclesiastical Observer (Volume 25), in response to a related lecture by Mrs. Josephine Butler

Similar uses of the term appeared in writing later, in a number of places, such as the following:

“The double standard of morality owes its continued existence very greatly to the want of a common sentiment concerning morality on the part of men and women, especially in the more refined classes of society.” — From an 1886 article titled “The Double Standard of Morality”, in the “Friends’ Intelligencer United with the Friends’ Journal” (Volume 43)

The term remained in consistent use since then, often in the context of gender-based double standards, where men and women were suggested to be held to different standards of morality. For example, one book famously described this issue by saying that:

“What was right for Jack was wrong for Jill.” — From the 1928 book “The Warrior, the Woman, and the Christ: A Study of the Leadership of Christ” by Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy

Note : the term ‘double standard’ has also been used in a number of niche technical senses , with the earliest known usage appearing in 1751.

Summary and conclusions

• A double standard is a principle or policy that is applied in a different manner to similar things, without proper justification.
• Intentional use of double standards is generally driven by the desire to achieve a certain outcome, while unintentional use of double standards is generally driven by emotional motivators, and often involves a failure to notice the double standards or understand that they’re problematic.
• To determine whether something constitutes a double standard, you should determine whether there is unequal treatment involved, and whether there is proper justification for such treatment.
• To deal with the use of double standards, you can use various techniques, such as asking the person applying the double standards to explain the rationale behind their behavior, or asking them how they would feel if someone else applied similar double standards toward them.

Other articles you may find interesting:

• Kant's Categorical Imperative: Act the Way You Want Others to Act
• The Sagan Standard: Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence
• The Golden Rule: Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated

Developing a Thesis Statement

Many papers you write require developing a thesis statement. In this section you’ll learn what a thesis statement is and how to write one.

Keep in mind that not all papers require thesis statements . If in doubt, please consult your instructor for assistance.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement . . .

• Makes an argumentative assertion about a topic; it states the conclusions that you have reached about your topic.
• Makes a promise to the reader about the scope, purpose, and direction of your paper.
• Is focused and specific enough to be “proven” within the boundaries of your paper.
• Is generally located near the end of the introduction ; sometimes, in a long paper, the thesis will be expressed in several sentences or in an entire paragraph.
• Identifies the relationships between the pieces of evidence that you are using to support your argument.

Not all papers require thesis statements! Ask your instructor if you’re in doubt whether you need one.

Identify a topic

Your topic is the subject about which you will write. Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic; or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper.

Consider what your assignment asks you to do

Inform yourself about your topic, focus on one aspect of your topic, ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts, generate a topic from an assignment.

Below are some possible topics based on sample assignments.

Sample assignment 1

Analyze Spain’s neutrality in World War II.

Identified topic

Franco’s role in the diplomatic relationships between the Allies and the Axis

This topic avoids generalities such as “Spain” and “World War II,” addressing instead on Franco’s role (a specific aspect of “Spain”) and the diplomatic relations between the Allies and Axis (a specific aspect of World War II).

Sample assignment 2

Analyze one of Homer’s epic similes in the Iliad.

The relationship between the portrayal of warfare and the epic simile about Simoisius at 4.547-64.

This topic focuses on a single simile and relates it to a single aspect of the Iliad ( warfare being a major theme in that work).

Developing a Thesis Statement–Additional information

Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic, or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper. You’ll want to read your assignment carefully, looking for key terms that you can use to focus your topic.

Sample assignment: Analyze Spain’s neutrality in World War II Key terms: analyze, Spain’s neutrality, World War II

After you’ve identified the key words in your topic, the next step is to read about them in several sources, or generate as much information as possible through an analysis of your topic. Obviously, the more material or knowledge you have, the more possibilities will be available for a strong argument. For the sample assignment above, you’ll want to look at books and articles on World War II in general, and Spain’s neutrality in particular.

As you consider your options, you must decide to focus on one aspect of your topic. This means that you cannot include everything you’ve learned about your topic, nor should you go off in several directions. If you end up covering too many different aspects of a topic, your paper will sprawl and be unconvincing in its argument, and it most likely will not fulfull the assignment requirements.

For the sample assignment above, both Spain’s neutrality and World War II are topics far too broad to explore in a paper. You may instead decide to focus on Franco’s role in the diplomatic relationships between the Allies and the Axis , which narrows down what aspects of Spain’s neutrality and World War II you want to discuss, as well as establishes a specific link between those two aspects.

Before you go too far, however, ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts. Try to avoid topics that already have too much written about them (i.e., “eating disorders and body image among adolescent women”) or that simply are not important (i.e. “why I like ice cream”). These topics may lead to a thesis that is either dry fact or a weird claim that cannot be supported. A good thesis falls somewhere between the two extremes. To arrive at this point, ask yourself what is new, interesting, contestable, or controversial about your topic.

As you work on your thesis, remember to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times . Sometimes your thesis needs to evolve as you develop new insights, find new evidence, or take a different approach to your topic.

Derive a main point from topic

Once you have a topic, you will have to decide what the main point of your paper will be. This point, the “controlling idea,” becomes the core of your argument (thesis statement) and it is the unifying idea to which you will relate all your sub-theses. You can then turn this “controlling idea” into a purpose statement about what you intend to do in your paper.

Look for patterns in your evidence

Compose a purpose statement.

Consult the examples below for suggestions on how to look for patterns in your evidence and construct a purpose statement.

• Franco first tried to negotiate with the Axis
• Franco turned to the Allies when he couldn’t get some concessions that he wanted from the Axis

Possible conclusion:

Spain’s neutrality in WWII occurred for an entirely personal reason: Franco’s desire to preserve his own (and Spain’s) power.

Purpose statement

This paper will analyze Franco’s diplomacy during World War II to see how it contributed to Spain’s neutrality.

• The simile compares Simoisius to a tree, which is a peaceful, natural image.
• The tree in the simile is chopped down to make wheels for a chariot, which is an object used in warfare.

At first, the simile seems to take the reader away from the world of warfare, but we end up back in that world by the end.

This paper will analyze the way the simile about Simoisius at 4.547-64 moves in and out of the world of warfare.

Derive purpose statement from topic

To find out what your “controlling idea” is, you have to examine and evaluate your evidence . As you consider your evidence, you may notice patterns emerging, data repeated in more than one source, or facts that favor one view more than another. These patterns or data may then lead you to some conclusions about your topic and suggest that you can successfully argue for one idea better than another.

For instance, you might find out that Franco first tried to negotiate with the Axis, but when he couldn’t get some concessions that he wanted from them, he turned to the Allies. As you read more about Franco’s decisions, you may conclude that Spain’s neutrality in WWII occurred for an entirely personal reason: his desire to preserve his own (and Spain’s) power. Based on this conclusion, you can then write a trial thesis statement to help you decide what material belongs in your paper.

Sometimes you won’t be able to find a focus or identify your “spin” or specific argument immediately. Like some writers, you might begin with a purpose statement just to get yourself going. A purpose statement is one or more sentences that announce your topic and indicate the structure of the paper but do not state the conclusions you have drawn . Thus, you might begin with something like this:

• This paper will look at modern language to see if it reflects male dominance or female oppression.
• I plan to analyze anger and derision in offensive language to see if they represent a challenge of society’s authority.

At some point, you can turn a purpose statement into a thesis statement. As you think and write about your topic, you can restrict, clarify, and refine your argument, crafting your thesis statement to reflect your thinking.

As you work on your thesis, remember to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Sometimes your thesis needs to evolve as you develop new insights, find new evidence, or take a different approach to your topic.

Compose a draft thesis statement

If you are writing a paper that will have an argumentative thesis and are having trouble getting started, the techniques in the table below may help you develop a temporary or “working” thesis statement.

Begin with a purpose statement that you will later turn into a thesis statement.

Assignment: Discuss the history of the Reform Party and explain its influence on the 1990 presidential and Congressional election.

Purpose Statement: This paper briefly sketches the history of the grassroots, conservative, Perot-led Reform Party and analyzes how it influenced the economic and social ideologies of the two mainstream parties.

Question-to-Assertion

If your assignment asks a specific question(s), turn the question(s) into an assertion and give reasons why it is true or reasons for your opinion.

Assignment : What do Aylmer and Rappaccini have to be proud of? Why aren’t they satisfied with these things? How does pride, as demonstrated in “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” lead to unexpected problems?

Beginning thesis statement: Alymer and Rappaccinni are proud of their great knowledge; however, they are also very greedy and are driven to use their knowledge to alter some aspect of nature as a test of their ability. Evil results when they try to “play God.”

Write a sentence that summarizes the main idea of the essay you plan to write.

Main idea: The reason some toys succeed in the market is that they appeal to the consumers’ sense of the ridiculous and their basic desire to laugh at themselves.

Make a list of the ideas that you want to include; consider the ideas and try to group them.

• nature = peaceful
• war matériel = violent (competes with 1?)
• need for time and space to mourn the dead
• war is inescapable (competes with 3?)

Use a formula to arrive at a working thesis statement (you will revise this later).

• although most readers of _______ have argued that _______, closer examination shows that _______.
• _______ uses _______ and _____ to prove that ________.
• phenomenon x is a result of the combination of __________, __________, and _________.

What to keep in mind as you draft an initial thesis statement

Beginning statements obtained through the methods illustrated above can serve as a framework for planning or drafting your paper, but remember they’re not yet the specific, argumentative thesis you want for the final version of your paper. In fact, in its first stages, a thesis statement usually is ill-formed or rough and serves only as a planning tool.

As you write, you may discover evidence that does not fit your temporary or “working” thesis. Or you may reach deeper insights about your topic as you do more research, and you will find that your thesis statement has to be more complicated to match the evidence that you want to use.

You must be willing to reject or omit some evidence in order to keep your paper cohesive and your reader focused. Or you may have to revise your thesis to match the evidence and insights that you want to discuss. Read your draft carefully, noting the conclusions you have drawn and the major ideas which support or prove those conclusions. These will be the elements of your final thesis statement.

Sometimes you will not be able to identify these elements in your early drafts, but as you consider how your argument is developing and how your evidence supports your main idea, ask yourself, “ What is the main point that I want to prove/discuss? ” and “ How will I convince the reader that this is true? ” When you can answer these questions, then you can begin to refine the thesis statement.

Refine and polish the thesis statement

To get to your final thesis, you’ll need to refine your draft thesis so that it’s specific and arguable.

• Ask if your draft thesis addresses the assignment
• Question each part of your draft thesis
• Clarify vague phrases and assertions
• Investigate alternatives to your draft thesis

Consult the example below for suggestions on how to refine your draft thesis statement.

Sample Assignment

Choose an activity and define it as a symbol of American culture. Your essay should cause the reader to think critically about the society which produces and enjoys that activity.

• Ask The phenomenon of drive-in facilities is an interesting symbol of american culture, and these facilities demonstrate significant characteristics of our society.This statement does not fulfill the assignment because it does not require the reader to think critically about society.

Drive-ins are an interesting symbol of American culture because they represent Americans’ significant creativity and business ingenuity.

Among the types of drive-in facilities familiar during the twentieth century, drive-in movie theaters best represent American creativity, not merely because they were the forerunner of later drive-ins and drive-throughs, but because of their impact on our culture: they changed our relationship to the automobile, changed the way people experienced movies, and changed movie-going into a family activity.

While drive-in facilities such as those at fast-food establishments, banks, pharmacies, and dry cleaners symbolize America’s economic ingenuity, they also have affected our personal standards.

While drive-in facilities such as those at fast- food restaurants, banks, pharmacies, and dry cleaners symbolize (1) Americans’ business ingenuity, they also have contributed (2) to an increasing homogenization of our culture, (3) a willingness to depersonalize relationships with others, and (4) a tendency to sacrifice quality for convenience.

This statement is now specific and fulfills all parts of the assignment. This version, like any good thesis, is not self-evident; its points, 1-4, will have to be proven with evidence in the body of the paper. The numbers in this statement indicate the order in which the points will be presented. Depending on the length of the paper, there could be one paragraph for each numbered item or there could be blocks of paragraph for even pages for each one.

Complete the final thesis statement

The bottom line.

As you move through the process of crafting a thesis, you’ll need to remember four things:

• Context matters! Think about your course materials and lectures. Try to relate your thesis to the ideas your instructor is discussing.
• As you go through the process described in this section, always keep your assignment in mind . You will be more successful when your thesis (and paper) responds to the assignment than if it argues a semi-related idea.
• Your thesis statement should be precise, focused, and contestable ; it should predict the sub-theses or blocks of information that you will use to prove your argument.
• Make sure that you keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Change your thesis as your paper evolves, because you do not want your thesis to promise more than your paper actually delivers.

In the beginning, the thesis statement was a tool to help you sharpen your focus, limit material and establish the paper’s purpose. When your paper is finished, however, the thesis statement becomes a tool for your reader. It tells the reader what you have learned about your topic and what evidence led you to your conclusion. It keeps the reader on track–well able to understand and appreciate your argument.

Writing Process and Structure

This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.

Getting Started with Your Paper

Interpreting Writing Assignments from Your Courses

Generating Ideas for

Creating an Argument

Thesis vs. Purpose Statements

Architecture of Arguments

Working with Sources

Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources

Using Literary Quotations

Citing Sources in Your Paper

Drafting Your Paper

Generating Ideas for Your Paper

Introductions

Paragraphing

Developing Strategic Transitions

Conclusions

Revising Your Paper

Peer Reviews

Reverse Outlines

Revising an Argumentative Paper

Revision Strategies for Longer Projects

Finishing Your Paper

Twelve Common Errors: An Editing Checklist

How to Proofread your Paper

Writing Collaboratively

Collaborative and Group Writing

Thesis Statements

What this handout is about.

This handout describes what a thesis statement is, how thesis statements work in your writing, and how you can craft or refine one for your draft.

Introduction

Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion—convincing others that you have an interesting, logical point of view on the subject you are studying. Persuasion is a skill you practice regularly in your daily life. You persuade your roommate to clean up, your parents to let you borrow the car, your friend to vote for your favorite candidate or policy. In college, course assignments often ask you to make a persuasive case in writing. You are asked to convince your reader of your point of view. This form of persuasion, often called academic argument, follows a predictable pattern in writing. After a brief introduction of your topic, you state your point of view on the topic directly and often in one sentence. This sentence is the thesis statement, and it serves as a summary of the argument you’ll make in the rest of your paper.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement:

• tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion.
• is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper.
• directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be World War II or Moby Dick; a thesis must then offer a way to understand the war or the novel.
• makes a claim that others might dispute.
• is usually a single sentence near the beginning of your paper (most often, at the end of the first paragraph) that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.

If your assignment asks you to take a position or develop a claim about a subject, you may need to convey that position or claim in a thesis statement near the beginning of your draft. The assignment may not explicitly state that you need a thesis statement because your instructor may assume you will include one. When in doubt, ask your instructor if the assignment requires a thesis statement. When an assignment asks you to analyze, to interpret, to compare and contrast, to demonstrate cause and effect, or to take a stand on an issue, it is likely that you are being asked to develop a thesis and to support it persuasively. (Check out our handout on understanding assignments for more information.)

How do I create a thesis?

A thesis is the result of a lengthy thinking process. Formulating a thesis is not the first thing you do after reading an essay assignment. Before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts (such as surprising contrasts or similarities), and think about the significance of these relationships. Once you do this thinking, you will probably have a “working thesis” that presents a basic or main idea and an argument that you think you can support with evidence. Both the argument and your thesis are likely to need adjustment along the way.

Writers use all kinds of techniques to stimulate their thinking and to help them clarify relationships or comprehend the broader significance of a topic and arrive at a thesis statement. For more ideas on how to get started, see our handout on brainstorming .

How do I know if my thesis is strong?

If there’s time, run it by your instructor or make an appointment at the Writing Center to get some feedback. Even if you do not have time to get advice elsewhere, you can do some thesis evaluation of your own. When reviewing your first draft and its working thesis, ask yourself the following :

• Do I answer the question? Re-reading the question prompt after constructing a working thesis can help you fix an argument that misses the focus of the question. If the prompt isn’t phrased as a question, try to rephrase it. For example, “Discuss the effect of X on Y” can be rephrased as “What is the effect of X on Y?”
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? If your thesis simply states facts that no one would, or even could, disagree with, it’s possible that you are simply providing a summary, rather than making an argument.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? Thesis statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument. If your thesis contains words like “good” or “successful,” see if you could be more specific: why is something “good”; what specifically makes something “successful”?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? If a reader’s first response is likely to  be “So what?” then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue.
• Does my essay support my thesis specifically and without wandering? If your thesis and the body of your essay do not seem to go together, one of them has to change. It’s okay to change your working thesis to reflect things you have figured out in the course of writing your paper. Remember, always reassess and revise your writing as necessary.
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? If a reader’s first response is “how?” or “why?” your thesis may be too open-ended and lack guidance for the reader. See what you can add to give the reader a better take on your position right from the beginning.

Suppose you are taking a course on contemporary communication, and the instructor hands out the following essay assignment: “Discuss the impact of social media on public awareness.” Looking back at your notes, you might start with this working thesis:

Social media impacts public awareness in both positive and negative ways.

You can use the questions above to help you revise this general statement into a stronger thesis.

• Do I answer the question? You can analyze this if you rephrase “discuss the impact” as “what is the impact?” This way, you can see that you’ve answered the question only very generally with the vague “positive and negative ways.”
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Not likely. Only people who maintain that social media has a solely positive or solely negative impact could disagree.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? No. What are the positive effects? What are the negative effects?
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? No. Why are they positive? How are they positive? What are their causes? Why are they negative? How are they negative? What are their causes?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? No. Why should anyone care about the positive and/or negative impact of social media?

After thinking about your answers to these questions, you decide to focus on the one impact you feel strongly about and have strong evidence for:

Because not every voice on social media is reliable, people have become much more critical consumers of information, and thus, more informed voters.

This version is a much stronger thesis! It answers the question, takes a specific position that others can challenge, and it gives a sense of why it matters.

Let’s try another. Suppose your literature professor hands out the following assignment in a class on the American novel: Write an analysis of some aspect of Mark Twain’s novel Huckleberry Finn. “This will be easy,” you think. “I loved Huckleberry Finn!” You grab a pad of paper and write:

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel.

You begin to analyze your thesis:

• Do I answer the question? No. The prompt asks you to analyze some aspect of the novel. Your working thesis is a statement of general appreciation for the entire novel.

Think about aspects of the novel that are important to its structure or meaning—for example, the role of storytelling, the contrasting scenes between the shore and the river, or the relationships between adults and children. Now you write:

In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast between life on the river and life on the shore.

• Do I answer the question? Yes!
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Not really. This contrast is well-known and accepted.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? It’s getting there–you have highlighted an important aspect of the novel for investigation. However, it’s still not clear what your analysis will reveal.
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? Not yet. Compare scenes from the book and see what you discover. Free write, make lists, jot down Huck’s actions and reactions and anything else that seems interesting.
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? What’s the point of this contrast? What does it signify?”

After examining the evidence and considering your own insights, you write:

Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression of American democratic ideals, one must leave “civilized” society and go back to nature.

This final thesis statement presents an interpretation of a literary work based on an analysis of its content. Of course, for the essay itself to be successful, you must now present evidence from the novel that will convince the reader of your interpretation.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Anson, Chris M., and Robert A. Schwegler. 2010. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers , 6th ed. New York: Longman.

Lunsford, Andrea A. 2015. The St. Martin’s Handbook , 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. 2018. The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing , 8th ed. New York: Pearson.

Ruszkiewicz, John J., Christy Friend, Daniel Seward, and Maxine Hairston. 2010. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers , 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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15 Double Standards Examples

Double standards are standards and principles that are applied to similar things in a differing manner, typically without proper justification.

For example, if a man can get away with behaving in a way that women cannot, then we have a gender-based double standard.

Given that double standards have high consequences, it’s important to recognize and challenge them (see also: hypocrisy examples ).

Below are 15 different ways and scenarios where double standards have infiltrated social practices.

Examples Of Double Standards

• Fathers vs Mothers: Fathers are praised for cooking dinner every now and then, while mothers are expected to do it all the time, without any praise.
• Body Image: Women’s body image tends to be scrutinized far more than men’s.
• Men’s vs Women’s Clothing: A male Australian television presenter wore the same suit every day for 12 months and no one noticed. He did it to highlight how men’s outfits are less scrutinized than women’s.
• Public Holidays: Christians get paid days off for their holidays (e.g. Christmas) while people of other religions don’t get the same courtesy.
• Men who Cry: Men are not allowed to cry or else the appear weak, while a crying woman is more accepted.
• Gendered Complaints: A woman who complains is considered ‘shrill’, while a man who complains is taken seriously.
• Assertive Women: Assertive women are seen as ‘bossy’ while assertiveness for men is often seen as a positive leadership trait.
• Journalism: A journalist who virtue signals online and is tough on a politician they don’t like, but provides softball questions to politicians they do like.
• Gendered Professions: A man who wants to be a nurse is ridiculed while a woman who wants to be a nurse is encouraged (and vice versa for other professions).
• Racial Profiling: Police racial profiling leads to the assumption that black men are up to no good while white people are giving the presumption of innocence.
• Attractive Clothing: A normatively attractive woman may get away with wearing a miniskirt, while women who are heavier may be criticized for the same outfit.
• Sons vs Daughters: A father who allows his 16 year old son to stay out until midnight but doesn’t let his daughter go out past 10pm.
• Female Broadcasters: A broadcasting corporation that fires the female on-air anchor when she turns 40, but keeps the male until retirement.
• Elites Get Away with It: A politician who conscripts working-class men to go to battle, but makes exceptions for the sons of the elites.
• Pay Gap: A company that pays some workers more for the same amount of work.
• The Bad Parent: Parents who tell their children not to do something, then they do it themselves.

15 Types of Double Standards

1. parenting.

Double standards within the parenting arena are plentiful. Fathers are praised for doing things that are simply expected of mothers!

In hetero partnerships, women are more likely to be seen as the caregiver and men as the breadwinner. These roles have been cemented throughout history and established standards for households.

If women work outside the home while their children are growing up, they are sometimes seen as unfit mothers and potentially as abandoning their “duties.”

Men, on the other hand, tend to be praised automatically for any slight effort or involvement with their kids as an aside to their full-time job.

2. Body Image

In recent years, the “dad bod” physique has been widely accepted and celebrated as an attractive body type for men.

The dad bod refers to a man is slightly overweight and not that muscular, or what is to be expected from a middle-aged man, (but applied to men of all age groups.)

Conversely, women do not typically receive the same latitude with their body and physique. Instead, they are encouraged and expected to stay slim at all stages and ages of life, including right after giving birth.

Failing to keep the standard of a preferred body image, women are at risk of facing criticisms that can have harmful effects and can be detrimental to mental health.

3. Employment

Race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender are just some of the unjustifiable grounds for double standards to exist and be executed in the workplace.

Whether it be opportunities for promotion or inclusion in company culture , employees have long been treated differently based on their identifying qualities as it relates to similar things.

For example, Christian-based holidays have been paid time-off for employees, while other religious celebrations are ignored and not afforded the same time off.

Although they are both religious holidays, they are perceived and treated with different levels of importance.

4. Expression of Emotions

Mental health issues affect all types of people from all walks of life.

Although it is a universal experience, how we express our emotions during mental health issues is judged differently depending on who is experiencing it. Often perpetuated in movies, the act of crying, for instance, can be perceived differently between men and women.

While women who openly cry and express their emotions may be wrongfully called “emotional” or “crazy”, it is still socially acceptable for them to cry and express emotions.

In comparison, men who show emotion, especially through crying, are seen as weak and not acting “like a man” in the way society expects them to.

5. Workplace Behaviours

Female bosses have a much harder time than male bosses in the workplace.

While men are often praised for being assertive and strong when making decisions, women who approach decision-making in the same way are perceived as “bossy” and “difficult.”

Although both leaders may strive to lead the company, women tend to be held back in their career progress based on these gender stereotypes and hurdles they face that their male counterparts do not.

6. News Outlets

Media, specifically the news, shares information from a particular perspective based on the motivations or often the political ideologies it identifies with. This can result in double standards in news reporting.

For example, protests and social movements are communicated differently depending on who is directly involved with them. That is, protests tend to be framed as rallies instead of riots if the news organization supports the protesters’ point of view.

Similar events, when initiated by those identifying with the opposite position, are condemned as radical and problematic, although their purpose is the same: to voice opinions and concerns about government.

7. Intimate Relationships

In a seemingly never-ending debate, social norms have positioned those identifying as men and those identifying as women in disparate positions when it comes to romantic intimacy.

Men, for instance, are accepted and encouraged to have multiple partners. Women, on the other hand, are stigmatized and shamed for having a history of multiple intimate partners, and in some cases judged for expressing a desire to have intimate relationships.

Although both men and women may be intimate with the same number of people, men are often congratulated while women are degraded for doing the same act: a double standard in plain sight.

Historically, there were socially agreed-upon careers paths for different genders to take on. A man who wants to be a nurse may be ridiculed while a woman who wants to be a nurse may be lauded.

When these paths are disrupted, people are often scrutinized or made fun of for stepping into a lane that “shouldn’t be theirs.”

Take for example the movie, Meet the Parents , Ben Stiller is identified as a nurse, a traditionally female-held job, and throughout the trilogy is belittled and made to appear as “weak” or “less than” other men with more masculine perceived jobs.

Similarly, women that work in trades are often discounted as not being strong enough.

9. Race and Culture

Race and culture are arguably the most pervasive double standards. It has not been uncommon throughout history to hold one race up to one standard and another to a completely different standard.

We have seen this between white colonialists and Indigenous people. Typically, white people in positions of power have held the standard of “good” and “authority,” while those in marginalized groups have been met with standards that associate them as problematic to society.

10. Pop Culture

The music industry is an instructive place to find double standards at work.

Oftentimes, female rappers and male rappers are perceived and responded to differently based on their choice of lyrics.

While they may both utilize innuendos or make reference to certain offhand subjects, female rappers are often judged more harshly and receive backlash for including this type of content in their music, while music of the same nature by their male counterparts is accepted, and to a degree, celebrated.

The legal system, while intentioned to apply universal law to all, often contains double standards.

Although all parties should stand equal before the law, it is very common to see judges who do not apply the same standards to all people.

As judges are humans, there is a chance that they may be given different sentencing based on different judge’s subjective biases, or favoritism that is based purely on socioeconomics, ethnicity, gender, or religion.

Take, for example, the US supreme court, which (depending on the court’s makeup) will often interpret law in ways that favors one political leaning over another.

The same goes for jury trials in court because of implicit or subconscious biases: see the movie 12 Angry Men , to get a better sense of prejudicial attitudes in court trials.

12. Attraction

Double standards are also at work in the realm of dating and levels of attraction.

Society accepts people in certain forms but uses different levels of judgment for others in a similar situation. For instance, it is only okay for a man to flirt with someone if he fits the image of what society deems as attractive.

If an un-attractive man hits on someone, it is seen as “creepy” or “unwanted.”

Similarly, revealing clothes on a woman who is an ideal beauty type is accepted, but a woman who is heavier in weight wearing the same thing is perceived as unattractive.

13. Entertainment

Movies and video games are both popular forms of entertainment that many enjoy around the world.

Aside from the positive qualities of enjoyment, it’s easy to find double standards at play without searching too far.

For instance, in the Marvel universe, a brand that spans across film, and video games, as well as its original home in comic books, women and men are presented with different standards of portrayal although they are both superheroes.

For instance, female superheroes are supposed to be scantily clad, while their male counterparts are more likely to be fully clothed and in less revealing outfits.

Even the act of aging is not immune to the judgments of double standards in our society.

Growing older is, in general, celebrated through various kinds of milestones and wisdom that is earned in older years.

Unfortunately, the effects of aging are not perceived equally; especially as it relates to the genders.

That is, age acts as an instrument of oppression: it enhances a man’s overall image but conversely older women are seen as outdated.

We don’t have to look any farther than beauty ideals to see this at work: older men are “silver foxes” but older women with silver hair are dismissed .

15. Social Interactions

People form bonds and relationships through communication. We express, listen, speak, and open our minds to others in an effort to form meaningful relationships.

Unfortunately, the way we choose to speak to one another is not always judged equally by society.

For instance, if a group of men are communicating in a vulgar or explicit manner it is seen as normal, but if a group of women were doing the same thing it would be frowned upon and perceived as “un-ladylike.”

Similarly, gossiping is usually perceived as more of a woman’s form of communication, but men who share information about others is informative.

In order for meaningful and authentic change to happen, we must recognize the double standards that we participate in whether consciously or unconciously.

It is not just to treat someone different in similar situations based on preconceived notions about them. If you find yourself in a moment of judgement against someone, stop and reflect on if that judgement is based on factual evidence or if you may be treating someone unfairly based on their differences.

Dalia Yashinsky (MA, Phil)

Dalia Yashinsky is a freelance academic writer. She graduated with her Bachelor's (with Honors) from Queen's University in Kingston Ontario in 2015. She then got her Master's Degree in philosophy, also from Queen's University, in 2017.

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Chris Drew (PhD)

This article was peer-reviewed and edited by Chris Drew (PhD). The review process on Helpful Professor involves having a PhD level expert fact check, edit, and contribute to articles. Reviewers ensure all content reflects expert academic consensus and is backed up with reference to academic studies. Dr. Drew has published over 20 academic articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education and holds a PhD in Education from ACU.

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Journal of Population Sciences

• Original Article
• Open access
• Published: 24 August 2020

Thinking as the others do: persistence and conformity of sexual double standard among young Italians

• Matteo Migheli   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5051-4462 1 &
• Chiara Pronzato 1 , 2 , 3  

Genus volume  76 , Article number:  25 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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Metrics details

The double standard represents a standard of good behaviour that, unfairly, some people are expected to follow or achieve, but others are not. Once neglected by social scientists, the double standard in sexual attitudes has become more and more studied. In this paper, we inquire about the existence of the double standard in opinions regarding peers’ sexual behaviours and study its determinants. What makes young people judge the sexual behaviour of women in a more conservative way than that of men? The paper uses data collected from Italian university students, who are asked to express their (dis)approval of a series of sexual behaviours, considering peers of either gender participating in those behaviours. The results show that the double standard exists and has been persistent amid Italian undergraduate students over the last 20 years, and that the cultural context matters more than the family in shaping students’ beliefs.

Introduction

The double standard represents a standard of good behaviour that, unfairly, some people are expected to follow or achieve, but others are not. Once neglected by social scientists (Reiss, 1956 ), the double standard (DS) regarding sexual attitudes and behaviours, and the opinions and judgements expressed about them, has become more and more studied. Following Bordini and Sperb ( 2013 ), we may define the sexual double standard as the existence of different attitudes, viewpoints and judgements between men and women about sexual habits, behaviours and tendencies. Indeed, the literature shows that women tend to stick to traditional sexual paradigms from young ages (Bordini and Sperb, 2013 and Kukulj & Keresteš, 2019 ), for example, refusing experimentation with sexual intercourse much more than men do (Lai & Hynie, 2011 ). As such, the sexual DS represents a limitation to women’s freedom and therefore is something that societies should carefully consider both as an indicator of distance from gender equality (Allison & Risman, 2013 ) and as a way to promote the latter by reducing the former (Bobbitt-Zeher, 2011 ). Moreover, sexual prejudices have other negative effects on both social and economic terms. They are a determinant of aggressiveness against sexual minorities (Parrott & Zeichner, 2005 ; Parrott et al., 2011 ), lead to occupational segregation (Plug et al., 2014 ) and ultimately decrease economic growth, as they engender an inefficient allocation of resources through discrimination (Berggren & Elinder, 2012 ).

Empirical evidence shows that the sexual DS is present already in adolescence (Kreager et al., 2016 ), suggesting that effective policies to reduce it should target people from a young age. There are thus several reasons to study the DS, and in particular its determinants and the possible actions which may be taken to reduce it. Jackson and Cram ( 2003 ) show that the DS may be disrupted using, for instance, focus groups with young women (aged 16–18), where the language of the sexual DS is challenged and sexual desires are freely presented and discussed by the participants.

In this paper, we inquire the existence of DS in opinions about peers’ sexual behaviours and study its determinants. The paper uses data collected from Italian university students, who are asked to express their (dis)approval of a series of sexual behaviours, considering peers of either gender holding those behaviours. The survey reports such information for both 2000 and 2017, allowing the observation of the evolution of sexual opinions and of the DS over time. Concerning the determinants of this phenomenon, the paper investigates how family and contextual characteristics may influence students’ answers. The results show that the DS exists and has been persistent among Italian undergraduate students over the period considered and that the cultural context matters more than the familial one in shaping students’ beliefs.

As Dalla Zuanna et al. ( 2019 ), this paper explores the changes in sexual behaviours of girls and boys and the related opinions, using the same data. Their focus is on the convergence between males and females’ opinions over time, which is due to the feminisation of male sexual behaviour within the couple (escapades become less acceptable also for boys) and to the masculinisation of female sexual behaviour outside the couple (having more partners becomes more acceptable also for girls). Instead, the present study contributes to the literature by studying the determinants of the individual asymmetry in judging girls and boys and, in particular, the influence exerted by the reference cultural context.

Related literature

Scholars have paid much attention to the sexual opinions and attitudes of undergraduate students over the last decades. In particular, many studies focus on the existence of a DS in both behaviours and opinions. The extant literature shows that behaviours and opinions have evolved together with the existence of the DS, which has never disappeared. Ferrell et al. ( 1977 ) consider sexual attitudes and behaviours in a sample of college students in the US between 1967 and 1974; their findings show the presence of strong DS about premarital sex in all the years considered. Scott ( 1998 ), using a similar population (i.e. college students) confirms these results for both the USA and the UK, providing evidence for the existence of the DS at young ages and in highly educated people. A recent review of the literature on the DS produced in the first decade of this century (Bordini & Sperb, 2013 ) highlights that several sexual behaviours are evaluated differently for men and women, while premarital sex and sexual intercourse outside committed relationships are more accepted for both genders now than in the past. Behaviours, norms and attitudes towards them are part of the wider and more general domain of culture Footnote 1 , which includes traits that may shape how people behave, think and judge others’ choices. Culture is also a major factor that supports the existence of the sexual DS: in most countries, the role of women is subordinated to that of men and such a subordination included sexual initiative, with more active roles attributed to men and women assigned to more passive roles. In addition, Sakaluk and Milhausen ( 2012 ) show not only that the DS exists but also that it is stronger in the male than in the female population. More recently, Emmerink et al. ( 2016 ) find that men endorse sexual DS much more than women, probably as a consequence of the traditional sexual roles assigned to the two genders. Endendijk et al. ( 2020 ) review 99 studies through a meta-analysis and confirm that, where differences between gender roles are bigger, the DS is stronger because men have more power than women. That part of culture, which refers to gender roles, will be inquired in the analysis, as one of the aspects of interest.

The DS in sexual attitudes, behaviours and opinions is indeed pervasive, starting from the very beginning of the sexual act, i.e. the approach to the other person, as Reid et al. ( 2011 ) show in their study of hooking up among US college students. Premarital sexual intercourse was the first topic to be studied (Reiss, 1956 ) where the DS emerges strongly; several other works have highlighted that it is more accepted for males than for females, in accordance with the dominant cultural stereotypes (Wilson & Medora, 1990 ; Ramos et al., 2005 ; England & Bearak, 2014 ). Another related attitude involves early sexual intercourse, which is socially stigmatised in young women, but not in young men (McCarthy & Bodnar, 2005 ; Kreager et al., 2016 ). However, many other fields of sexuality are affected by the presence of a DS, the number of sexual partners being another relevant example (Ramos et al., 2005 ; Bordini & Sperb, 2013 ; Sprecher et al., 2013 ). Very recently, Marks et al. ( 2019 ) asked a sample of about 5000 US young people, aged 18–35, to evaluate the sexual behaviour of one of their friends whose sexual life they knew. The results show the emergence of a strong DS, in particular with respect to the number of sexual partners, with women evaluated worse than men as the number of partners increases. Also, the provision of condoms by women is generally seen scarcely convenient, as people in general (Smith et al., 2008 ) and even women in particular (Hynie & Lydon, 1995 ) believe that it is more a male than a female matter. Footnote 2 Jozkowski et al. ( 2017 ) show that endorsing a sexual DS also affects sexual consent communication between college students, engendering problems of misunderstanding and influencing the perception of sexual violence.

Given the focus of this paper, a digression on the so-called reverse DS is needed, with particular reference to same-sex sexual behaviours, as this is the case, where the phenomenon is most often observed. A reverse DS (i.e. more permissive attitudes towards women than towards men) is sometimes found, and generally emerges when considering same-sex sexual behaviours: here, sexual relationships between men are generally stigmatised more than between women (Siegel & Meunier, 2019 ). Lesbian sexual relations generally receive more positive evaluations, possibly because they are considered more erotic than sexual relations between men (Louderback and Whitley Jr., 1997 ). Herek ( 2000 ) found that heterosexual women hold similar attitudes toward both gay men and lesbians, whilst heterosexual men tend to accept lesbians more than gay men. Of course, such a reversion in the DS may depend on the norms that are typical of heterosexuality; as mentioned before, the DS exists because men and women have different views and attitudes towards sexual matters. In particular, the traditionally preeminent role of men and the subordinate role of women may affect how the two genders perceive and evaluate same-sex sexual behaviours. When the last is viewed as something that hinders masculinity (Javaid, 2018 ), the emergence of a reversed DS, when same-sex sexuality is concerned, may simply be the specular image of the DS existing in heterosexual attitudes and behaviours.

One may wonder why the sexual DS is so persistent over time. A first answer is that it is rooted in the cultural values of most modern societies, where the role of women is still seen as a subaltern to that of men. MacCorquodale ( 1989 ) highlights that the gender roles learnt at young ages are relevant in shaping gendered perceptions of sexual attitudes. Indeed, women with more egalitarian gender role attitudes and more ‘masculine’ personality traits are more prone to have multiple partners and exhibit more ‘masculine’ sexual behaviours and attitudes (Lucke, 1998 ). The culture of virginity, which has seen it as a positive trait for young women over centuries, is responsible for the fact that young women evaluate female virginity much more positively than men do with male virginity (Sprecher & Regan, 1996 ). Always considering culture, Crawford and Popp ( 2003 ) highlight that the sexual DS is a local construction, as it depends on cultural stereotypes that vary with place. This means also that while the DS is present almost everywhere, there may be differences in judgements from a place to another, due to differences in the prevalent local cultures. Such a variation may weaken the effectiveness of large-scale policies aimed at fighting the sexual DS. Nevertheless, as the literature surveyed in what follows shows, most of the existing studies identify many traits and trends that are common to different countries (e.g. New Zealand, Turkey, UK and USA) and, therefore, cultures. Such regularities support (at least partially) the external validity of studies conducted within a specific cultural context. Yost and Zurbriggen ( 2006 ) show that unrestricted sociosexual orientation (i.e. willingness to engage in sexual relations without romantic involvement) correlates positively with premarital sex and the number of sexual partners; they also highlight the importance of the local sociocultural context for these aspects. However, for men, such an orientation correlates positively also with more conservative attitudes towards women, thus reinforcing the sexual DS. Eşsizoğlu et al. ( 2011 ) study a sample of Turkish undergraduate students, finding that traditional gender roles affect the attitude towards premarital sex: more conservative individuals—i.e. those who stick to more traditional gender roles—stigmatise premarital and early sex more than those with a more progressive vision do. Analysing the answers of US undergraduate students, Zaikman and Marks ( 2014 ) find that US individuals with more sexist attitudes also exhibit stronger DS in their evaluations of peers with multiple sexual partners.

Fasula et al. ( 2014 ) highlight the role of racial and gender inequality in explaining the existence of the sexual DS in the USA; in particular, they claim that the DS is a consequence of such inequalities. Similar conclusions are reached by Lefkowitz et al. ( 2014 ): US undergraduate students who exhibit conventional stereotyped beliefs about gender roles endorse a stronger DS regarding the use of condoms by women and for multi-partner relations than students with a more egalitarian vision of gender roles. In the same vein, Zaikman et al. ( 2016 ) interview 483 US adults, proposing examples of gender role violations regarding sexual behaviours; their results show the emergence of a stronger DS when traditional roles are violated than when they are observed. All these studies relate the existence and the strength of a sexual DS surrounding the individual image of gender roles; thus, in a sense, the same individual is observed from two different perspectives. While individual preferences and attitudes may well depend on those diffused in the environment where the person was (and is) socialised, the individual dimension does not shed any light on environmental influence on one’s preferences and attitudes.

The socio-cultural environment may shape individual preferences and attitudes—including the divide represented by the sexual DS—through the role of reputation. Indeed, departures from the dominant culture and the expectations of most people (especially parents and peers) are likely to expose those to social stigma who are not compliant with social norms. According to the literature, parents and peers are pre-eminently responsible for the development of opinions and judgements regarding sexual attitudes and behaviours. Young et al. ( 2016 ) highlight that Hispanic New Mexican adolescents who experience early sexual intercourse pay a social price in terms of harsher evaluations expressed by their peers; such negative opinions are stronger among women than among men, but do not differ according to the gender of the person evaluated. In particular, women with very active sexual attitudes (for example, looking for casual sex) may incur social stigma (Rudman et al., 2012 ). Farvis et al. ( 2017 ) show that young New Zealand women refrain from casual sex more than they would like because of reputational reasons. Reputation is mainly a matter of relationships between peers, especially in youth and adolescence. Peers contribute to shaping one’s attitudes, preferences and behaviours, as the extensive literature on peer effects shows (see, for example, Tomé et al., 2012 ). Therefore, a good reputation is achieved when one’s behaviours and choices conform to the social norms adopted by the reference group. Thus, when a sexual DS is diffused between peers, individuals adopt it, leading to situations very similar to those shown by Farvis et al. ( 2017 ). Scales ( 1977 ) provided evidence of this in the use of contraceptive techniques. Kreager and Staff ( 2009 ) show that in the USA, ‘greater numbers of sexual partners are positively correlated with boys’ peer acceptance, but negatively correlated with girls’ peer acceptance’ (2009, p. 143). Such contexts create the bases for opinions to translate into behaviours, transforming attitudinal DS into factual DS. In line with cultural stereotypes, England and Bearak ( 2014 ) show that male college students in the US are more judgmental toward women than toward men who have casual sex. Kreager et al. ( 2016 ) examine a sample of US adolescents, finding that females aged 11–16 who had or were having sexual partners were less accepted by peers than females who did not experience sexual intercourses at those ages; the opposite results are found for males. In addition, the authors’ results show that peers reinforce the DS of friends and acquaintances during adolescence. However, the same study finds also a reversed DS when ‘making out’ is the behaviour considered: for females, this engenders increasing acceptance, while the opposite holds for males. However, it is likely that the interviewees compared ‘making out’ with sexual intercourse, judging the former relatively more suitable for females than for males. The extant literature also shows that men and women have always tended to evaluate the same behaviour differently depending on whether it is enacted by a woman or a man (Robinson & Jedlicka, 1982 ). More recently, Allison and Risman ( 2013 ) have shown that in the USA, men are more prone to use it in their judgements of sexual behaviour, whilst women tend to adopt egalitarian, though conservative, positions more often than men.

Parents are also important in shaping adolescents’ and young adults’ attitudes and preferences, as they are the first educators of their children. The literature has examined this element, paying particular attention to two aspects: communication between parents and children on sexual issues and children’s desire to adhere to their parents’ expectations. In general, talking with parents about sex and related issues (such as contraception) is associated with more sexual permissiveness; however, Californian adolescents who talk about sex with their parents also show stronger gendered stereotypes about sexual issues (Morgan et al., 2010 ). US women who did not talk about sexuality with their parents in their adolescence are more likely to stick to traditional paradigms, reinforcing the existence of the sexual double standard (Montemurro et al., 2015 ). On the second point (willingness to meet parents’ expectations), Shoveller et al. ( 2004 ) highlight that Canadian adolescents aim at conforming to parents’ expectations; along the same lines, from the literature review of Fugère et al. ( 2008 ), the concern of children about parental disapproval of their sexual behaviour emerges as a factor shaping the sexual attitudes of young adults. Aksun and Ataca ( 2007 ) provide evidence that when Turkish children perceive restrictive sexual values and attitudes in their parents, they tend to postpone their first sexual intercourse and enjoy it less than do young adults who perceive their parents to be more liberal.

Religiosity represents another relevant individual trait that predicts the endorsement of the sexual DS. Scott ( 1998 ) highlights the importance of religious beliefs in shaping this evolution, with religious people more reluctant to adopt permissive sexual behaviours. Using a sample of undergraduate students recruited in the Eastern USA, Lefkowitz et al. ( 2004 ) show that religious people stick to more conservative sexual behaviours than non-religious. Eşsizoğlu et al. ( 2011 ) study the DS regarding virginity and premarital status in Turkish universities and find that both religious males and females are more likely than non-religious to remain virgins until marriage, although the effect is stronger for women than for men. In line with the literature on value transmission from parents to children, Landor et al. ( 2011 ) find evidence that in the USA, young Afro-American adults with religious parents are less likely to start having sex at early ages and to have multiple sexual partners. This result may also be interpreted in the light of studies which suggest that young people generally try to meet their parents’ expectations in terms of compliance with moral norms. Emmerink et al. ( 2016 ) show that a strong and positive relationship between religiosity and traditional gender attitudes exists and is responsible for the presence of sexual DS in a sample of young Dutch people. Religious attitudes are generally found to be responsible for both traditional visions of gender roles (Morgan, 1987 ; Glick et al., 2002 ), and sexual DS (Ali & Gordon, 2018 ).

The relationships found in these articles linking the existence of sexual DS to peers’ and parents’ attitudes towards sexuality, however, may indicate that both children and parents living in less traditional families talk more about sexuality than people living in more traditional families. Therefore, there may be a self-reinforcing mechanism working against the sexual double standard in such families. The analysis proposed in the present paper will try to minimise this issue of endogeneity, as explained in the section devoted to illustrating the methodology.

This paper contributes to the literature by analysing the determinants of the DS with individual data: what makes young people judge women’s sexual behaviour in a more conservative way than that of men? The present inquiry refers to Italy, which is a country characterised by a variety of social and cultural contexts, with significant—and thus exploitable—variability of the level of liberalism with respect to sexual matters between regions. While such variability is not exhaustive of all possible cultures, nevertheless, it adds support to the generalisability of the results.

Data and methods

This paper uses information collected through the SELFY survey (Dalla Zuanna et al., 2019 ), carried out in the years 2000 and 2017, over a sample of Italian undergraduate students in economics and statistics. The questionnaire includes several questions about the emotional and sexual life of students, together with information about their family, their childhood and adolescence. The questionnaire was filled in by students during a regular lecture. After completion, the questionnaire was inserted in an envelope, in order to ensure privacy and anonymity. A total of 12,064 respondents (4762 in 2000 and 7842 in 2017) filled in the questionnaire. On the one hand, we have good sample sizes; on the other hand, University students in Economics and Statistics do not represent the whole population of young Italians. With respect to the representativeness and other characteristics of the survey, the reader can refer to a detailed description of both the questionnaire and the data is available in Dalla Zuanna et al. ( 2019 ).

The questions from the SELFY database used in this paper focus on the respondents’ opinions of certain sexual behaviours. In particular, the interviewees are asked whether they approve or disapprove a certain behaviour, once enacted by a female, once by a male. The behaviours evaluated are the following: (1) having very early sexual relations, (2) having escapades while in a relationship with a person, (3) having sexual relations with multiple partners, without having a fixed partner, (4) remaining a virgin until a relatively high age, (5) remaining a virgin until marriage and (6) having sex with people of the same sex. Each respondent is asked to express his or her approval on a four-digit scale. We focus our analysis on more extreme (conservative) opinions: Footnote 3 whether the interviewed person strongly disapproves of behaviours 1, 2, 3 and 6 and whether he or she strongly approves of behaviours 4 and 5. We then define the double standard (DS) as the presence of more conservative judgements of females about the analysed behaviours and the reverse double standard (RDS) as the presence of more conservative judgements of males about the same behaviours. Table 1 reports the main figures. For example, we observe that 49.8% of respondents to the 2000 survey do not approve of very early sexual behaviours in women, while 33.5% do not approve the same behaviour for men. 17.2% state that women should not engage in very early sexual behaviours while men may do so. On the other hand, 1.2% state that men should not have very early sexual behaviours while women may do so. Comparing responses from the 2017 survey to responses from the 2000 survey gives an immediate idea of the extent to which young people have become more sexually progressive. The largest difference concerns same-sex sexual behaviours: 54–60% negatively judged having sex with partners of the same sex in 2000, only 22–33% in 2017. Opinions remain more constant over time when considering escapades: an invariant percentage of around 70 used 75% of students do not approve of escapades while being in a relationship with a person. Among students who judge differently women and men, we observe, as expected, a larger proportion of students evaluating women in a more conservative way for all behaviours, with the exception of having same-sex sexual relations. The RDS, in this case, has even increased between 2000 and 2017.

The goal of the paper is to understand how the cultural framework (paying particular attention to gender roles in society) where students were socialised during their adolescence impacts their opinions and judgements regarding sexual behaviours. The analysis takes into consideration the attitudes towards gender equality that prevail in the region (NUTS-2 level) where the interviewees were enrolled in upper-secondary school. In the Italian school system, people enrol in upper-secondary school when they are 14, and the legal duration is five years, i.e. the students normally leave this level of education when they are 19. Information about gender equality sentiments in the twenty Italian regions comes from the World Values Survey (2008). We use the responses to seven questions. The interviewed person was asked her or his level of agreement (disagree strongly, disagree, agree and agree strongly) with the following statements: (1) a pre-school child suffers with a working mother; (2) what women really want is a home and children; (3) being a housewife is as fulfilling as having a paid job; (4) a job is the best way for women to be independent; (5) husbands and wives should both contribute to the household income; (6) fathers are as well suited to look after children as mothers; (7) men should take the same responsibility for home and children. Given the large number of items, a principal component analysis was carried out, and components with eigenvalues greater than one were extracted. Table 2 presents the correlations between each component and the answers to the seven original questions. As the correlations show, the components capture different attitudes towards gender equality: the first is highly positively correlated with items expressing a traditional division of family and work duties between women and men (we will refer to it as ‘Traditional division of responsibilities’), while the second is highly correlated with items expressing the importance of women outside the family (we will refer to it as ‘Working women’). The third is correlated with the item expressing differences between mothers and fathers in their abilities to care for children (we will refer to it as ‘different caring attitudes’).

We are interested in testing the relationship between the view of gender roles in society and how students evaluate selected sexual behaviours when performed by females or males. We, therefore, estimate the following equation:

where Y i , b * is a latent variable that captures the probability of a student i to be more conservative when judging a certain sexual behaviour b held by one gender compared to the other gender. If Y i,b * > 0, we observe Y i,b = 1, which indicates the presence of a DS in all outcomes other than the one concerning same-sex sexuality. The vector G indicates the first two gender-roles factors at a regional level, Footnote 4 while X indicates the individual and family control variables. T is a dummy variable indicating the more recent survey carried out in 2017, and e i,b is the individual error that follows a logistic cumulative distribution. Errors are clustered at the regional level. When the estimated coefficients β are negative, that implies that differences between judgements are reduced in region when the factor G is high.

Each individual in the dataset is assigned the value of the components relative to the region where he or she lived while attending secondary school. We include, as controls, two demographic characteristics of the student (age and gender) found to be important determinants of the DS and two characteristics of the family (level of education and religiosity) that can be related to the view of gender roles in society and have a direct impact on students’ judgement. Footnote 5 Students’ age is concentrated between 20 and 21 years (around 70%) but may reach 26 years (25% are older than 21). As for religiosity, we consider mothers’ services attendance when the student was 13 years old. The dummy variable takes value 1 when she was attending services at least 2/3 times a month. The relative descriptive statistics are reported in Table 3 .

Table 4 comprises the results. At first sight, we see that the regional dimension matters more than the personal/family ones. We observe that living in a region with a strong preference for a traditional division of responsibilities increases the DS: women are judged more severely in their sexual sphere. On the other hand, regions characterised by more progressive attitudes towards women in the labour market show lower values of DS. In the only case of RDS (sex with a same-sex partner), we also estimate a negative impact from the more progressive factor. This does not seem a coincidence, given that the "working women" factor is the one that brings women closer to a traditionally more masculine context (work outside the home) and men to a traditionally more feminine context (care work).

With respect to the other variables included in the model, we generally observe that women, as expected, are more likely to judge women and men in the same way, including in the case of same-sex sexuality. The strongest effect is found in case of same-sex relations, where girls are three times more likely to judge boys and girls in the same way. The only exception appears for ‘remaining a virgin until a relatively high age’, where females tend to say that this is more important for themselves than for men.

When significant, the estimated effect of age shows that older students are more likely to judge female and male sexual behaviours in the same way.

Parental background seems to matter only for remaining a virgin until marriage, where having a religious mother makes this behaviour more desirable for females; having higher education reduces the distance between females and males. Surprisingly, living in a religious family environment also shortens the distance between females and males concerning escapades. This could be because this behaviour is considered so unacceptable in general (see Table 1 ), particularly for religious people, that the difference between genders is smaller.

Over the passage of time, we observe an improvement in equality between men and women when their sexual behaviour is judged: the dummy indicating the survey carried out in 2017 is almost always negative; exceptions are present for ‘very early sexual relations’ and ‘having sex with same-sex partners’. These hardly significant results could be due to the drastic reduction in the share of students who do not approve of early relations and, especially, who do not approve of same-sex sexual relations between 2000 and 2017, which have not been linear for either sex. The estimated coefficient is instead negative and particularly strong in case of escapades and multiple partners, recalling results reported by Dalla Zuanna et al. ( 2019 ): “escapades” become less bearable for boys and “multiple partners” becomes more bearable for girls, making judgements between girls and boys closer.

By interacting the two regional factors with the dummy variable reporting the year of the survey, we get a few but interesting results. In the case of “remaining a virgin until a relatively high age”, we find that the reduction in the double standard over time is larger for more traditional regions. On the other hand, for “having sex with people of the same sex”, for which observe a general increase of the reverse double standard between 2000 and 2017, more equality between judgments over time is due to more modern regions. Footnote 6

How quantitatively important are these findings? Let us compare two identical average students (males, 21 years old, in 2017, with low parental education and without a religious mother) in two very different contexts: one region characterised by high conservativism, the other region characterised by very high progressivism (see values in Table 5 ). Footnote 7 The student raised in the more traditional context is three times more likely to say that a girl (though not a boy) should remain a virgin until marriage than the student raised in the less traditional regions (the probability of DS goes from 0.10 to 0.03). The first student is twice as likely to be more severe with girls when judging the fact of having multiple partners (even if not in a fixed relationship) or the importance of remaining a virgin until a high age. The probability of DS is also reduced when judging early sexual relationships and escapades. There is no effect on the RDS concerning same-sex sexual relationships. Footnote 8

Are these effects large with respect to the ones related to the family? Generally, yes, looking at the non-significance of the family variables in most cases. Let us simulate the only relevant outcome, ‘virgin until marriage’: while we observed a reduction of seven percentage points due to the context, tertiary education would reduce the share of students with DS by two percentage points, and having a religious mother would increase this proportion by 2.5%.

These gendered attitudes towards sexual behaviour seem to be primarily due to the environment where students grew up. We know not only the region where students spent their adolescence, but also where they were born, where they currently study, and where they officially reside at present. Repeating the analyses with factors related to the region of birth would leave the results unchanged, while using current regions would reduce the significance of the cultural dimensions.

Conclusions

Starting with two surveys conducted among Italian undergraduate students, this paper has inquired into the existence of sexual DS in Italy in 2000 and 2017. The results are in line with extant literature that shows both the existence of sexual DS among the young. The novelty of the analysis, however, lies in the connection found between the cultural context of origin and the opinions of the interviewees towards some sexual behaviours. The results show that students from areas with more conservative backgrounds exhibit stronger DS than their peers raised in more progressive contexts. Italy offers sufficient socio-cultural differences across its regions to render analysis possible within one country. This has an additional positive aspect: a common language. Indeed, when translated into different languages, the same questions may present different nuances of meaning to respondents in different linguistic areas.

The analysis considers both the familial and regional contexts of the student, showing that the second matters more than the first in shaping the opinions of the interviewees. This phenomenon, however, suggests that the sexual DS will be very hard to eradicate for at least two reasons. First, the culture of a region changes slowly and is difficult, if not impossible, to influence from outside. Second, the evidence proposed in the paper also suggests that these cultural traits are very likely to be reproduced through younger generations’ conformity to them. A possible interpretation of the results in light of the extant literature is that undergraduate students aim at conforming to opinions from people in the original region more than those of their parents because the first is more important for social acceptance.

Endendijk et al. ( 2020 ) may provide an interesting ground on which discussing the results presented here, inasmuch as the authors show two main results that are of particular interest here. On the one hand, the widespread existence of the DS emerges from the extant literature; on the other hand, gender equality works a moderator of the phenomenon. The results from the sample of Italian undergraduate students presented here are in line with both these findings, suggesting that not only their validity is more than internal, but also that traditional cultural frameworks may amplify and increase the time persistence of the DS.

Roland ( 2015 , p. 2) defines culture as “the set of values and beliefs people in a given community have about how the world (both nature and society) works as well as the norms of behavior derived from that set of values.”

However, some studies (Gentry, 1998 ; Crawford & Popp, 2003 ; Marks & Fraley, 2005 ) challenge the existence of such a ubiquitous DS, showing its absence with respect to some aspects of sexual life such as multiple relationships.

An alternative definition of the DS could have been the difference between the degree of approval expressed for males and that for females. However, such a variable would present at least two weaknesses. The first is the translation of verbal responses into numbers: on the one hand, the use of a linear transformation would entail assuming equidistance between the preferences, without any support for such an assumption. On the other hand, any functional form used would be arbitrary, and the results may depend on the transformation applied to the responses. In addition, a numerical transformation would implicitly assume the same distance between degrees of agreement for all the respondents.

We did not include the third factor (different care attitudes) since it was never significant.

We estimated models with larger numbers of controls, which never happened to be significant: being the firstborn, having siblings, parental separation, parents’ work conditions, and size of the place of residence during adolescence. Results available upon request.

Results upon request.

The values chosen for the simulation and reported in Table 5 are realistic and taken from the distribution of the variables observed in the data.

The negative effect is driven by the negative sign of the coefficient ‘Traditional division of responsibilities’ (Table 4 ), which, however, is not significant.

Aksun, D., & Ataca, B. (2007). Sexually related attitudes and behaviors of Turkish university students. Archives of Sexual Behavior , 36 (5), 741–752.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the useful suggestions and comments received by the other authors of SELFY initiative during a dedicated workshop in Firenze and the annual meeting of the Italian Population Society in Milano.

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Essay on sexual double standard.

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Sadly, sexual double standards still exist in today's society. Despite attempts at making sexuality equal between men and women, there exists a strong double standard that rewards male sexuality while shaming the female equivalent. This social science essay explores the history of the sexual double standard, how it impacts gender roles, and the educational solution required to solve the problem. 

Sexual Double Standard: Root causes and feasible solutions

Gender-related issues have been an important topic in society throughout history. For years, women have been subjected to adverse treatment when it came to sexual standards. While men have long been credited and hailed for ‘bedding’ women and having many sexual partners; however, women were historically scorned for having multiple partners, especially out of wedlock. The sexual double standard has roots in our modern society as well. Since the sexual revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s, men and women have seen their sexual roles go in the same direction as before. Women are still heavily scorned for being promiscuous while men are rewarded. The rewards, in this case, are social. Moreover, there is less social stigma associated with men who choose to have many sexual partners. Ultimately, the sexual double standard developed from media related scripts and a culture of acceptance; adequate solutions to this problem will require integrating sexual equality into the curriculum of sexual education courses that young people take.

How did the double standard start?

The sexual double standard is a dominant and widely practiced view that scorns women for sexual conduct that is deemed excessive. In another sense, it is also: 

"The view that encourages and accepts sexual expression of men more than women” (Knox 257).  

While men and women form intimate relationships differently , the implications of such a standard reflect adverse treatment towards women with multiple partners. As Knox remarked, women who have multiple partners are personified with negative connotations. On the other hand, men are glorified for the same behavior and depicted as being “studs” (Knox). Ultimately, it is wholly unacceptable in today’s society for women to have promiscuous relations with men while men can actively practice it without such intense social stigma. The heightened social stigma associated with women’s behavior is the main crux of the problem. 

When looking at the root cause of the problem, it is important to consider how children learn their sexual behaviors. From an early age, children are socialized into society through school, their friends and of course, parents. While parents can do a good job of teaching their kids that a sexual double standard is not acceptable, there is still the issue of school systems. Sex education in schools is a great opportunity to teach kids about sexuality and how it works in terms of the social context. Moreover, the media is another root cause of the sexual double standard. Television, magazines, and movies are an important factor to consider because they are key ways that children learn scripts about how to behave in the real world.

Television and media

Television shows give young children sexual scripts to follow , and effectively is a major root cause of the sexual double standard. According to Jennifer Aubrey in Sex and Punishment: An Examination of Sexual Consequences and the Sexual Double Standard in Teen Programming , women are personified as facing severe social and emotional consequences for not being sexually promiscuous. In their analysis of various television shows that depicted social relations among youth, the researcher found:

“Negative consequences were more common in scenes in which female characters initiated sexual activities than in scenes in which male characters initiated sexual activities” (Aubrey 505).

Women that were open to sexual conduct were later scolded and personified as being subjected to negative behavior, despite the fact that men did the same thing, albeit with less stigma afterward. Some of the consequences of sexual conduct by women included emotional abuse and social alienation (Aubrey). Clearly, this is an example of men being able to exercise “greater sexual freedom” while women were not able to practice the same behavior (Eichler 127). The media offered a script that children could follow and utilize for their own lives.

Reflecting on sexual double standards and children

In looking at the evidence, it is clear that a major cause of the sexual double standard is the fact that the media portrays gender roles with pre-defined social scripts. Through repeated exposure to such forms of media, women develop internal modes of conduct that enforce the sexual double standard. Social cognitive theory by Albert Bandura argued that children and people have the capacity to internalize behaviors that are repeatedly shown in movies and television shows (Aubrey). Also, women’s behaviors regarding sexuality are increasingly subject to influence by the media.

Research shows that girls internalize the belief that ‘nice’ girls and ‘good’ women do not take the initiative in satisfying their sexual desires; they wait for men to make the first move, and, even then, they control and restrict how far the sexual behavior will advance. (Aubrey 512) Children are thus trained to abide by these strict social norms and codes of sexual conduct that they see in the movies. Promiscuous behaviors are scolded or praised because of the personifications in television shows like the ones that Aubrey analyzed. 

As children internalize these beliefs over time, negative terms also enter the mainstream vocabulary of children. Terms like that result in a sexual double standard where women are subjected to being treated adversely while men are not. Clearly, this is a problem with how the media chooses to portray men, women and their relations. The double standard stems from the fact that young people learn these behaviors and contribute to the culture of defined sexual roles.

In order to propose an effective solution, it is important to consider that we need to change the way that future generations of children respond to gender roles . This is not an easy task and requires a high level of reinforcement, persistence, and thoroughness. Addressing the issue of the media is not the most effective channel of influence. After all, attempting to battle established and funded institutions like Hollywood may be a moot point. Magazines, television shows, and movies would still reinforce social norms that pertain to sexuality. However, there is an immense opportunity when it comes to education in public and private schools. 

Solving the double standard problem

Sexual education classes in schools have proven to be effective in helping youths recognize and practice safe sexual behavior. For instance, the 1980’s were years where schools focused on comprehensive sexual education with an emphasis on disease prevention (Levesque 30). Soon, there was a social stigma around not practicing safer sex and a problem was seriously addressed. Similarly, other issues within sexual education were addressed: contraceptives, STI prevention and more (Levesque). Sexual education has thus proved to be a robust means of addressing issues concerning sexuality. The same efforts can be focused on addressing the sexual double standard.

Since youth have a more liberal attitude towards sexual relationships , a curriculum focused on addressing issues like the sexual double standard can be effective in changing the way that children think about sexual roles. For instance, greater emphasis on equality and impact of having multiple sexual partners can easily be integrated into traditional sexual education courses. Since there are no outstanding media interests that impact sexual education curriculums (like Hollywood), efforts would be effective in getting the message across to students. Over time, a balanced focus on understanding the social and emotional implications of having multiple partners would be realized by students. As students change the way that they think about sexuality and their own bodies, they will come to better understand that their behavior is misguided when it comes to treating women adversely for having multiple partners. Moreover, men would also eventually develop a stigma associated with having many partners. 

Naturally, this process would not fix the problem overnight, but it would be a solid foundation for a better future where women are treated equally with respect to sexual roles. If men are burdened with the same stigma of being dirty and a ‘whore,’ then attitudes would profoundly change over time. Once those attitudes are passed down to further generations, then the problem will be truly addressed and peoples’ attitudes will begin to change for the long term. Moreover, the social stigma would be associated with men as well as women. 

The media's role

We have seen that media like television shows focus more on sexuality and have fostered attitudes that supported the sexual double standard of sexual behavior. The integration sex-role related materials was offered as a feasible solution to address the problem. The sexual double standard is a viewpoint that supports the notion that it is ok for men to have sex with many sexual partners with minimal social stigma. However, women are faced with an intense social stigma for the same actions. The problem was that society enforced these viewpoints through various areas of influence, especially in television shows. Research by Aubrey showed that television shows offered scripts that children would emulate in real life.

This resulted in adherence to the sexual double standard. While attempting to amend the way that Hollywood depicts sex roles would be a formidable challenge, changing the way that sexual education programs address the issue would be effective. Over time, children would develop more appropriate and egalitarian attitudes toward sex roles. Ultimately, this solution would take time and effort but would prove to be effective in changing the way that people think about the sexual double standard. 

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Sexual Double Standards: Contributions of Sexual Socialization by Parents, Peers, and the Media

Joyce j. endendijk.

Child and Adolescent Studies, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan1, P.O. Box 80140, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands

Maja Deković

Helen vossen, anneloes l. van baar, ellen reitz.

(Hetero)sexual double standards (SDS) entail that different sexual behaviors are appropriate for men and women. There is large variation in whether people endorse SDS in their expectations about the sexual behavior of women and men (i.e., SDS-norms). To explain these individual differences, we examined associations between SDS-norms of Dutch adolescents (aged 16–20 years, N  = 566) and what parents, peers, and the media teach adolescents about appropriate sexual behavior of boys and girls (i.e., SDS-socialization). Adolescents completed an online survey at school. Regarding SDS-socialization, more traditional SDS-norms conveyed by the media and peers, but not of parents, and less perceived sexual activity of female peers, were associated with more traditional SDS-norms. Only for boys, exposure to sexy girls/women on social media and sexual music videos of female artists were associated with more traditional SDS-norms. Thus, SDS-socialization by peers and the media and opposite gender models (for boys) are important in light of adolescents’ SDS-norms.

Introduction

Women and men are often held to different standards of appropriate behavior (Foschi, 2000 ; Prentice & Carranza, 2002 ). A well-known example is the (hetero) sexual double standard (SDS), in which different sexual behaviors are expected of, and valued for, men and women (Emmerink et al., 2016 ; Zaikman & Marks, 2017 ). Traditionally, men/boys are expected to be sexually active, dominant, and the initiator of (hetero) sexual activity, whereas women/girls are expected to be sexually reactive, submissive, and passive. Moreover, traditionally men are granted more sexual freedom than women. As a consequence, women and men are treated differently when they show the same sexual behaviors. For example, slut-shaming is experienced by 50% of girls, compared to 20% of boys (Hill & Kearl, 2011 ). Traditional expectations about the sexual behavior of men and women (i.e., SDS-norms) are associated with gender differences in sexual risk behavior, specifically, with more sexual partners for men, and more reluctance to request or insist on condom use for women (Lefkowitz et al., 2014 ). SDS-norms have also been linked to the fact that most perpetrators of sexual coercion and violence are men, whereas most of their victims are women (Shen et al., 2012 ). Furthermore, concepts related to SDS-norms, such as gender role adherence in intimate relations (Sanchez et al., 2012 ) and women’s association of sex with submission (Kiefer et al., 2006 ) appear to be related to women’s lower sexual pleasure and greater difficulty achieving orgasms compared to men. Traditional SDS-norms have also been related to other societal problems, such as homophobia, sexism, and gender inequality (Zaikman & Marks, 2014 ; Zaikman et al., 2016 ).

Even though studies on the SDS have traditionally produced mixed results (e.g., Howell et al., 2011 ; Marks & Fraley, 2005 ; Zaikman & Marks, 2014 ), a recent meta-analysis yielded clear evidence for the continued existence of a traditional SDS, especially in people’s stereotyped expectations about the sexual behaviors of women and men (Endendijk et al., 2020 ). Yet, large variation in the degree to which people endorse SDS-norms was also found. Because of the negative consequences of traditional SDS-norms, it is important to examine a wide range of factors that could explain how these individual differences in SDS-norms develop. Most previous research examined only one or a few determinants of SDS-norms and predominantly in samples of college students, although SDS-norms were also found in adolescent and adult samples (Endendijk et al., 2020 ). In the current study, we examined associations between SDS-norms of Dutch adolescents (aged 16–20 years) and what parents, peers, and the media teach adolescents about appropriate sexual behavior of boys and girls (i.e., SDS-socialization). This will increase our knowledge about the relative importance of each factor, and how they covary and operate in conjunction with each other. We focus on middle and late adolescents for the following reason: they are particularly at risk for the negative consequences of the SDS, because major developments in sexuality take place in this developmental period (e.g., acquiring sexual experience, experiencing sexual debut; de Graaf et al., 2017 ) and they are still forming personal SDS-norms on the basis of these experiences (Zaikman & Marks, 2017 ). The included age range of adolescents is consistent with contemporary views on adolescence, which encompass a wider timeframe including the early twenties as well (Sawyer et al., 2018 ).

A Social Norm Perspective on SDS-Socialization by Parents, Peers, and the Media

The SDS can be considered as social norm: i.e., a set of shared rules and standards that guide and/or constrain social behavior. Therefore, the SDS does not exist if it is not shared with others (Cialdini & Trost, 1998 ). Social norms can be transmitted by any person or context in the social sphere (Cialdini & Trost, 1998 ). Parents, peers, and the media are the most important socialization-agents for adolescents, but they are rarely studied together (Ballard & Morris, 1998 ; Epstein & Ward, 2008 ). According to social norm theory, adolescents are motivated to internalize the actual or perceived norms that are conveyed by these socializing-agents (Cialdini & Trost, 1998 , Van de Bongardt et al., 2015 ), for example about the SDS. This motivation is fueled by people expecting external rewards for conforming to social norms, and sanctions for not conforming to social norms. In addition, not conforming to social norms, and the resulting deviation from a social group, is detrimental for self-esteem (Cialdini & Trost, 1998 ). Therefore, based on normative social influence, we expect that norms conveyed by parents, peers, and the media that reflect a traditional SDS are associated with more traditional SDS-norms in adolescents. Of the three socializing-agents, adolescents perceive the media to convey more stereotypical norms about sexual behavior of girls and boys, followed by peers and parents (Epstein & Ward, 2008 ). Therefore, strongest normative social influence on the SDS may be found for the media, followed by peers, and lastly by parents.

Social norm theory also distinguishes two different ways in which SDS-norms can be conveyed by parents, peers, and the media. First, SDS-norms can be transmitted in a descriptive way (i.e., descriptive norms) via the behaviors of socializing agents that are reflective of the SDS. As such descriptive norms describe appropriate sexual behavior of men and women, and provide a model for imitation. Second, SDS-norms can be transmitted in an injunctive way (i.e., injunctive norms) when socializing agents differentially approve or disapprove of the same sexual behaviors in women versus men. Injunctive norms specify how women and men should behave sexually, and motivate these behaviors by promising rewards or punishments. Both types of social norm transmission appear to play a role in adolescents’ sexual development (Van de Bongardt et al., 2015 ).

SDS-Socialization by the Media

Regarding the socialization role of the media, previous studies demonstrated the separate importance of exposure to music videos of hip-hop, r&b, and rap artists (Ter Bogt et al., 2010 ; Van Oosten et al., 2015b ), online pornography (Ortiz et al., 2016 ), reality television (e.g., “Geordie Shore”, Seabrook et al., 2016 ; Vandenbosch et al., 2015 ), and people’s sexy presentation on social media (Van Oosten et al., 2015a ) for adolescent’s sexual behaviors, sexual attitudes, and SDS-cognitions. These media types contain considerable sexual content and behaviors that provide a descriptive norm and model for the SDS (Vandenbosch et al., 2015 ; Ward, 2003 ). For example, girls are more likely than boys to present themselves in a sexy way on social media (Vandenbosch et al., 2015 ) and in many TV genres and music videos men are depicted as sex-driven whereas women are depicted as sexual objects (Ward, 2003 ). More exposure to these descriptive norms in the media is expected to be associated with more traditional SDS-norms (Cialdini & Trost, 1998 ; Ward, 2003 ). Moreover, these media types are highly popular among adolescents. For example, over 50% of adolescents encounter pornography (Ševčíková & Daneback, 2014 ), with 10% being frequent users (Peter & Valkenburg, 2011 ). In addition, about 70% of adolescents use multiple social media platforms (Lenhart et al., 2015 ) and approximately 50% of teenage profiles on these platforms contain a sexualized image of the user (Crescenzi et al., 2013 ). The current study extends previous work by examining the relative importance of each type of media (i.e., music videos, online pornography, reality television, sexualized presentation of others on social media) for adolescents’ SDS-norms.

It is also important to examine how adolescents perceive the injunctive norms conveyed by these types of media about SDS, because these perceptions might be better predictors of SDS-norms than mere exposure (Epstein & Ward, 2008 ; Peter & Valkenburg, 2010 ). Adolescents indeed perceive the media to convey injunctive norms by differential approval of sexual behavior in men and women (e.g., “Women who have sex are sluts”, Epstein & Ward, 2008 ). Research is now necessary that relates these perceptions to adolescents’ personal SDS-norms.

SDS-Socialization by Peers

Besides the media, peers can also play a role in SDS-socialization via the descriptive and injunctive norms they convey about the SDS (Van de Bongardt et al., 2015 ). For instance regarding descriptive norms, when adolescents perceive their male peers to be highly sexually active and their female peers to be less sexually active, this provides a model for the SDS (Cialdini & Trost, 1998 ). In addition regarding injunctive norms, when adolescents think their peers are more approving of boys’ having casual sex than they are of girls’ engaging in the same behavior, this conveys support for traditional SDS-norms (Cialdini & Trost, 1998 ). Peers indeed were found to be more accepting of male adolescents having sex or having a higher number of sexual partners than they are of female adolescents engaging in the same behaviors (Kreager & Staff, 2009 ; Kreager et al., 2016 ). There also is meta-analytic evidence that the descriptive and injunctive norms of peers about sex are associated with adolescents’ sexual activity and sexual risk behavior (Van de Bongardt et al., 2015 ). However, this meta-analysis did not specifically examine the influence of the norms peers convey about the SDS or the separate influence of the sexual behavior (i.e., descriptive norms) of male and female peers. In the present study, we examined how the perceived sexual behavior of male and female peers (i.e., descriptive norms) and the injunctive norms peers convey about the SDS are linked to adolescents’ SDS-norms.

SDS-Socialization by Parents

With regard to parental norms, we only focus on the role of injunctive SDS-norms, because adolescents generally do not have, or do not want to have, insight in the sexual behavior of their parents (i.e., descriptive norm). Parents can convey injunctive SDS-norms in two ways First, parents can transmit information about appropriate sexual behavior of boys and girls via the rules they set for their children about dating and having sex (Mumford et al., 2016 ), and for using media with sexual content (Parkes et al., 2013 ). Such parental rules can be seen as injunctive norms as they prescribe how girls and boys should behave sexually, e.g., do not go on dates or sleep over with a romantic partner, or do not watch sexual media (Cialdini & Trost, 1998 ). When girls are sexually restricted more by these rules than boys this conveys the message that there are different norms for the sexual behavior of boys and girls. There is indeed some evidence that parents provide girls with restrictive messages regarding sexual behavior and boys with positive sex messages (Downie & Coates, 1999 ; Morgan et al., 2010 ), which has been related to more traditional SDS (Askun & Ataca, 2007 ).

Next to parental rules, parents can also transmit injunctive SDS-norms via their differential approval of certain sexual behaviors for boys and girls. For instance, there is ample evidence that parents are more approving of boys’ having sexual intercourse at an early age than they are of girls’ engaging in the same behavior (Connell & Elliot, 2009 ; Downie & Coates, 1999 ; Kim & Ward, 2007 ). Also, we know that parental beliefs about sexual permissiveness and condoms are associated with adolescents beliefs about sex and condoms (for a review, see Wright, 2009a ). We only found one unpublished dissertation specifically associating injunctive SDS-norms communicated by parents to adolescents’ SDS-norms (Miller, 2012 ). In this study more traditional norms about the SDS communicated by mothers as well as fathers (e.g., “It is worse for a woman to sleep around than it is for a man”) were associated with more traditional SDS-norms of adolescents. More research is necessary to determine whether parents indeed transmit SDS-norms to their adolescent offspring in an injunctive way.

A Social Learning Perspective on Gender-Specific Modeling of Socializing Agents

When examining associations between SDS-socialization conveyed by the media, peers, and parents and adolescents’ SDS-norms, it is important to take into account gender of the socializing agent and the adolescent. For example, according to social learning theory, imitation and socialization effects are supposed to be most likely for same-gender models (Bandura, 1977 ). Adolescents might be more likely to identify with same-gender models and same-gender models provide information about what are appropriate behaviors and beliefs for one’s own gender. Therefore, one might expect stronger associations between adolescents’ SDS-norms and peer sexual behavior, exposure to sexualized music videos, and people’s sexualized presentation on social media for same-gender models than for opposite-gender models. Some studies indeed found evidence for a same-gender modelling effect for peer influence (Lindsey, 2016 ) as well as media exposure (Coyne et al., 2014 ) on gender-stereotyped behavior. However, there are also studies finding no difference in same-gender or opposite-gender modelling of peers (Andrews et al., 2002 ) or the media (Coyne et al., 2016 ). Yet, other studies find evidence for opposite-gender modelling, with girls’ sexual attitudes being associated with viewing sexualized music videos of male artists (Van Oosten et al., 2015b ). Because of these inconclusive gender-specific findings, we examined in a explorative way whether and how adolescent gender moderates the associations between SDS-norms and SDS-socialization conveyed by models in the media and male and female peers.

Current Study

In sum, this study investigated the associations of perceived SDS-socialization conveyed by the media, peers, and parents (injunctive SDS-norms of the media, peers, and parents; exposure to sexualized music videos of male and female artists, online pornography, reality tv, and sexualized women and men on social media; sexual behavior of male and female peers; and parental rules about sex, dating, and sexual media use) with adolescents’ SDS-norms. We also explored whether perceived SDS-socialization by male and female media and peer models are associated differently with girls’ and boys’ SDS-norms. The following hypotheses were tested:

• More exposure to media models, and female and male peers that confirm the SDS (i.e., descriptive SDS-norms) is associated with more traditional SDS-norms in adolescents;
• More traditional injunctive SDS-norms conveyed by the media, peers, and parents are associated with more traditional SDS-norms in adolescents;
• SDS-norms in the media are most strongly related to adolescents’ SDS-norms, followed by SDS-norms of peers, and lastly by SDS-norms of parents.

Social norms consist of different elements (Mackie et al., 2015 ). In the current study we focus on the social expectation element which concerns peoples’ beliefs about what others do (Mackie et al., 2015 ). In the context of the SDS this would entail adolescents’ expectations of the sexual behavior of women and men. It is important to mention that social norms are not necessarily congruent with one’s personal attitudes. For instance, people might believe that men take the initiative in sex more often than women because they perceive this to be the case in society. Yet, they do not necessarily have to have a negative attitude about women taking the initiative in sex. Indeed, research has shown that many people still believe the SDS to exist in society, but in their personal attitudes do not endorse the SDS (Milhausen & Herold, 2001 ; Rudman et al., 2013 ). The distinction between social norms and personal attitudes is important in social psychology, because some behaviors are more influenced by personal attitude, and other behaviors more influenced by social norms (Trafimow, 1998 ). Social norms about sex have been found to be more robust predictors of adolescents’ sexual behavior than personal attitudes about sex (Buhi & Goodson, 2007 ). Therefore, we focus on adolescents endorsement of social norms in this study. Our conceptualization of SDS-norms bears resemblance to the conceptualization by Milhausen and Herold ( 2001 ) of people’s perception of the existence of SDS in society (e.g., “Who do you think has more sexual freedom today?”) as well as Endendijk’s et al. ( 2020 ) conceptualization of SDS stereotypes (i.e., personal or socially-shared expectations about the sexual behavior of men and women).

Participants

Student assistants (BA and MA students in Clinical Child, Family, and Education studies) recruited classes from high schools and lower vocational schools (in Dutch: MBO) via their personal networks (e.g., own former high school, current internship organization) to participate in this study. Using information letters (provided in-person or via e-mail) the student assistants recruited 24 schools to participate in this study between November 2017 and June 2019. From each school one or two classes participated (22 schools with 1 class participating, 2 schools with 2 classes participating). The participating classes were not randomly selected, but determined by whether a teacher was willing to let the data collection take place in their class.

In total, complete data were collected from 566 adolescents aged between 16 and 20 years old ( M age  = 17.17, SD = 1.00, 58% girls). In addition, 54 adolescents did not complete the entire questionnaire and were not included in this study. There were no differences between completers and non-completers on any of the background variables (ps > 0.054). Table ​ Table1 1 presents the background characteristics of this sample. Ethnicity of the participants was diverse and similar to the ethnic diversity in the Dutch population. In terms of educational levels, 38% of the participating adolescents were enrolled in lower secondary education, compared to 50% of adolescents in the Dutch population. Boys and girls did not differ in age ( p  = 0.14) and experience with sexual intercourse ( p  = 0.70). Boys were more often of Dutch ethnicity than girls ( χ 2 (6) = 27.90, p  < 0.01, res adj  = 2.6). Boys were also more often enrolled in pre-university education (res adj  = 2.4), and less often in lower secondary education than girls (res adj  = − 2.3, χ 2 (3) = 8.50, p  < 0.05). Finally, boys more often had a heterosexual orientation (i.e., no romantic or sexual interest in the same gender and at least some interest in the other gender, for more information see Measures) than girls ( χ 2 (1) = 38.70, p  < 0.01, res adj  = 6.2). All these background variables were included in further analyses.

Sample characteristics

In bold significant differences between boys and girls

a Educational levels are sorted from lowest to highest level

Participants completed an online survey (duration: approximately 45 min) via Limesurvey. The order of the questionnaires was the same for all participants (background characteristics, gender typicality, personal SDS-norms, sexual activity of peers, injunctive SDS-norms peers, exposure to sexualized music videos, reality TV, porn, and sexualized people on social media, injunctive SDS-norms media, parental restrictions, injunctive SDS-norms parents, experience with sexual intercourse, sexual orientation). This fixed order minimized the influence of parental, peer, and media SDS questionnaires on adolescents’ responses to the questionnaire assessing personal SDS-norms. Also, we chose to present sensitive topics, such as sexual orientation and sexual experience, at the end of the questionnaire. Yet, multiple items within one questionnaire were always presented randomly to participants, to reduce response sets on similarly worded questionnaires (i.e., questionnaires assessing personal SDS-norms and SDS-norms conveyed by parents, peers, and the media, see Measures). We only used previously validated questionnaires or adaptations from validated questionnaires that are commonly applied with adolescents. Participants completed the questionnaires in class under supervision of the student assistant who recruited the school to participate and received no compensation for their participation.

Adolescents’ SDS-norms

We adapted the Scale for the Assessment of Sexual Standards Among Youth (SASSY, Emmerink et al., 2017 ) to be able to assess the complete range of possible SDS-norms from reversed to traditional. The original SASSY could not distinguish between people with reversed and egalitarian sexual standards, because both groups of people would (strongly) disagree with the items that are all worded in the direction of a traditional SDS (e.g., “I think cheating is to be expected more from boys than from girls”). Therefore, we changed the wording of the items and instead asked adolescents to indicate which gender they expected to show a certain sexual behavior more often (e.g., cheating), using a 3-point scale (0 =  both genders equally often, or neither gender , 1 =  boys/men , 2 =  girls/women ). A complete list of the 16 items can be found in appendix 1 . We recoded the items in such a way that positive scores (+ 1) represent traditional expectations about the sexual behavior of men and women (e.g., expecting cheating more from men, and refusing sex more from women). Neutral score (0) represent egalitarian expectations about the sexual behavior of men and women (e.g., expecting cheating for both gender equally often). Negative scores (− 1) represent reversed expectations about the sexual behavior of men and women (e.g., expecting cheating more from women, and refusing sex more from men). We checked whether all items loaded onto one factor with a categorical principal component analysis (CATPCA). All items loaded onto one factor (Cronbach’s α = 0.76; see Appendix 2 , Table ​ Table5for 5 for factor loadings), except for the item ‘looking attractive’. As this item did not measure sexual behaviors like the other items, we deleted this item from our measure. Recoded scores of the other 15 items were averaged to create a composite variable for personal SDS-norms.

Factor loadings for CATPCA on items of the questionnaire assessing adolescent SDS-norms

SDS-Socialization

Injunctive sds-norms conveyed by the media, peers, and parents.

We adapted items from the SASSY (Emmerink et al., 2017 ) also in a different way to assess adolescents’ perceptions of the injunctive SDS-norms conveyed by the media, peers, and parents. Adolescents indicated their perceptions on statements such as: “[According to the media/My friends think/My parents think] a boy should be more knowledgeable about sex than a girl”, using a 6-point scale ranging (1 =  completely untrue to 6 =  completely true ). Items were answered in separate questionnaires for the media, peers, and parents (see Appendix 1 for a complete list of the items). We only adapted 8 items of the SASSY with the highest factor loadings (> 0.55) to reduce the length of the questionnaire. Items were averaged in separate variables for adolescents’ perceptions of the injunctive SDS-norms conveyed by the media (Cronbach’s α = 0.92), peers (Cronbach’s α = 0.71), and parents (Cronbach’s α = 0.88).

Descriptive SDS-norms Media: Exposure to Sexualized Women and Men on Social Media

Adolescents reported how often, in the past 6 months, they had looked at pictures on social network sites (e.g., Facebook, Instagram) of other women/girls or men/boys in which these others presented themselves (a) with a sexy gaze, (b) with a sexy appearance, (c) scantily dressed (e.g., bathing suit or underwear), and (d) in a sexy posture (Van Oosten et al., 2015a ). Response options ranged from 1 ( never ) to 7 ( multiple times a day ). Items were averaged separately for exposure to sexualized women/girls (Cronbach’s α = 0.95) and men/boys (Cronbach’s α = 0.94).

Descriptive SDS-norms Media: Exposure to Reality TV

On a 7-point scale (1 =  never to 7 =  every episode ), adolescents indicated how often they watched 6 reality shows during the 6 months before the survey (e.g., MTV’s ‘‘Ex on the beach’’, MTV’s “Geordie shore”, Temptation Island) (Vandenbosch et al., 2015 ). We chose sexually oriented reality shows that were broadcasted before and during data collection. Items were averaged to create an exposure to reality TV variable (Cronbach’s α = 0.75).

Descriptive SDS-norms Media: Exposure to Online Porn

On a 7-point scale (1 =  never to 7 =  multiple times a day ), adolescents reported on the extent to which they had intentionally watched, on the Internet, (a) pictures with clearly exposed genitals, (b) videos with clearly exposed genitals, (c) pictures in which people are having sex, (d) or videos in which people are having sex, during the last 6 months (Vandenbosch et al., 2015 ). Items were averaged to create an exposure to online porn variable (Cronbach’s α = 0.93).

Descriptive SDS-norms Media: Exposure to Sexualized Music Videos of Female and Male Artists

Adolescents indicated how often in the last 6 months they had watched music videos on the Internet or on television by 3 female (i.e., Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande) and 3 male artists (i.e., Drake, Ronnie Flex, Justin Bieber) (Van Oosten et al., 2015b ). We chose the artists based on three criteria: First, the artists’ music had to belong to rap, hip-hop, or R&B, which are music genres known for the highest amount of sexual content in music videos (Hansen & Hansen, 2000 ; Turner, 2011 ; Wright, 2009b ), and the artists had to be known for at least some sexual content in their music videos. Second, the artists had to be popular among Dutch adolescents at the beginning of the study. Third, the artists needed to be sufficiently established in the Dutch music charts in order to remain popular over the course of the study (i.e., no “one-hit wonders”). Response options ranged from 1 ( never ) to 7 ( multiple times a day ). Items were averaged separately for exposure to sexualized music videos of female artists (Cronbach’s α = 0.95) and male artists (Cronbach’s α = 0.94).

Descriptive SDS-norms Peers: Sexual Activity of Male and Female Peers

We adapted a question about adolescents’ perceptions of their peers’ sexual activity (i.e., “How many of your best friends do you think have experience with intercourse?”, Fasula & Miller, 2006 ; Van de Bongardt et al., 2014 ) to 6 questions about specific sexual behaviors of male and female peers (i.e., “How many of your [female/male] friends or peers do you think [have experience with intercourse/masturbate frequently/have experience with one-night-stands]?”). Response options ranged from 1 ( none ) to 6 ( all of them ). Items were averaged separately for perceived level of sexual activity of female peers and male peers.

Parental Restrictions Regarding Sex and Dating or Regarding Sexual Media Use

Adolescents answered the following 3 questions about their parents restrictions regarding sex and dating: “Do your parents allow you to [sleep over with someone you are in a relationship/date with someone your parents know/date with someone your parents don’t know]?” (Mumford et al., 2016 ). Adolescents also indicated on two items whether their parents restricted the use of media with sexual content (“Do your parents allow you to watch series, movies or videoclips or play games [that contain a lot of nudity/with a lot of sexual activity in them]”, Parkes et al., 2013 ). Response options were 1 =  yes and 0 =  no . Items were averaged separately for parental restrictions regarding sex and dating and parental restrictions regarding sexual media use.

Previous research identified the following individual characteristics of adolescents that might be associated with their SDS-norms and therefore need to be controlled for when examining the role of sexual socialization by parents, peers, and the media. First, age: older adolescents who are more likely to have experience with sexual intercourse might form more traditional SDS-norms (Zaikman & Marks, 2017 ). Second, with regard to adolescent gender, boys are more likely than girls to endorse traditional SDS-norms (Emmerink et al., 2016 ; Rudman et al., 2013 ). Third, people with a non-Western ethnic background endorse more traditional SDS-norms than people from a Western background (Endendijk et al., 2020 ; Fugère et al., 2008 ). Fourth, higher educational level might be associated with more egalitarian SDS-norms (e.g., Dodson & Borders, 2006 ; Harris & Firestone, 1998 ). Fifth, non-heterosexual adolescents might endorse SDS-norms less than heterosexual adolescents (Byron et al., 2017 ; Zaikman et al., 2016 ). Sixth, typicality of one’s gender identity might be associated with more traditional SDS-norms (Arthur et al., 2008 ; Patterson, 2012 ).

Therefore, adolescents reported the following background characteristics: gender (0 =  boy , 1 =  girl ), age in years, educational level (1 =  lower secondary or vocational education , 2 =  higher secondary education , 3 =  pre-university education , 4 =  gymnasium/Grammar school ), and ethnicity (1 =  Dutch , 0 =  non-Dutch ). Adolescents also indicated whether they had experience with sexual intercourse (vaginal or anal) (1 =  yes , 0 =  no ). Furthermore, adolescents reported on their sexual orientation (1 =  heterosexual orientation, i.e., no romantic/sexual interest in the same-gender and at least some romantic/sexual interest in the other-gender, 0 =  non-heterosexual orientation , all other combinations of romantic/sexual interest in the same-and other-gender). Finally, adolescents reported the typicality of their gender identity. Therefore, girls indicated whether they identified with the following labels: (1) Girly–girl, (2) Tomboy (i.e., boyish girl), (3) Androgynous (i.e., similarly boyish and girlish, or not boyish and not girlish). Boys indicated whether they identified with the following labels: (1) Boyish boy, (2) Girlish boy, (3) Metrosexual (i.e., a boy who is preoccupied with his looks), (4) Androgynous (i.e., similarly boyish and girlish, or not boyish and not girlish). Items were answered on a 3-point scale (1 =  no , 2 =  sometimes , 3 =  yes ). The gender identity labels were based on previous research (Ahlqvist et al., 2013 ; White et al., 2018 ). After recoding the gender-atypical items (girls: item 2 and 3, boys: item 2–4), scores were averaged into a composite variable with higher scores reflecting more typical gender identity.

First, we checked whether questionnaires adapted from the SASSY (SDS-norms adolescent, injunctive SDS-norms of the media, peers, and parents) measured distinct constructs, by conducting exploratory factor analyses with Maximum Likelihood and Promax rotation. See Appendix 2 for the results of these factor analyses showing a clear distinction between the different questionnaires.

Second, several descriptive analyses were used to assess associations between the study variables (i.e., Pearson correlation), gender differences on study variables (i.e., independent sample t -tests), differences in exposure to male and female models in the peer group or the media (i.e., paired sample t -tests), and differences between the media, peers, and parents in the strength of the SDS-norms they conveyed (i.e., repeated-measures ANOVA).

Third, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to test our hypotheses with regard to the predictors of adolescents’ SDS-norms and the moderation of these associations by adolescent gender. The predictors were entered in several steps: (1) relevant covariates (inclusion of covariates was determined based on the change-in-estimate method, > 5% change criterion; Rothman et al., 2008 ), (2) perceived SDS-socialization by the media, peers, and parents, and (3) interactions between adolescent gender and perceived SDS-socialization by male and female media and peer models.

A priori power analyses using G*Power (Faul et al., 2009 ) indicated that a sample of 395 would have enough power (0.80) to detect a small effect ( f 2  = 0.02) of a single predictor in a multiple regression analysis with 25 predictors (α = 0.05, two-tailed). In addition, a sample of at least 520 (304 girls, 216 boys, allocation ratio N girls /N boys  = 1.41) would yield enough power (0.80) to detect a difference in slopes of 0.10 between boys and girls in a regression analysis on variables with a standard deviation of 0.5 (α = 0.05, two-tailed).

Descriptive Statistics and Gender Differences

Table ​ Table2 2 displays correlations between all study variables. Most variables approached a normal distribution, except for the variables associated with exposure to sexualized music videos, reality tv, and porn. As most adolescents did not watch these types of media on a frequent basis, these variables were dichotomized (0 =  did not watch in past 6 months , 1 =  did watch in past 6 months ). One outlier was identified on adolescents’ SDS-norms and one on the injunctive SDS-norms of peers. These outliers were winsorized (highest non-outlying number + difference between highest non-outlying number and before highest non-outlying number; Tabachnick & Fidell, 2012 ).

Correlations between all study variables

Abbreviation D refers to descriptive norms. * p  < .05, ** p  < .01

Most correlations were of small to medium size and in the expected direction. Some large positive correlations were found between the exposure to different types of sexual media, between perceived sexual activity of male and female peers, and between parental restrictions with regard to sexual media and sex/dating. Also, there were moderate to strong positive correlations between injunctive SDS-norms conveyed by the media, peers, and parents. Unexpectedly, watching more porn was associated with less traditional SDS-norms in adolescents. In addition, more parental sexual media restrictions were associated with adolescents watching more sexualized music videos of both male and female artists, but less exposure to porn and sexualized girls and women on social media.

Table ​ Table3 3 displays means and standard deviations for the whole sample and separately for boys and girls. Paired samples t -tests showed that adolescents were exposed more to sexualized girls/women than to sexualized boys/men on social media ( t (565) = 13.86, p  < 0.01, d  = 0.57), but they watched more sexualized music videos of male artists than of female artists ( t (565) =  − 3.93, p  < 0.01, d  = 0.16). Adolescents also perceived their male peers to be more sexually active than their female peers ( t (565) = − 17.01, p  < 0.01, d  = 0.56). Adolescents perceived the media as conveying the most traditional injunctive SDS-norms, followed by their peers, and their parents ( F (1.77, 997.65) = 153.02, p  < 0.01, partial η 2  = 0.21, Huynh–Feldt correction, all contrasts p  < 0.01). There were no differences in parental restrictions with regard to sex/dating and with regard to sexual media use ( t (565) = 0.80, p  = 0.42).

Descriptive statistics for all study variables in the whole sample and for boys’ and girls’ separately

Abbreviation D refers to descriptive norms. Abbreviation NS refers to non-significant. *significant differences between boys and girls ( p  < .004)

Regarding gender differences, independent t -tests ( p -level adjusted to 0.004, to account for multiple testing, see Table ​ Table3) 3 ) showed that boys scored significantly higher than girls on watching sexualized girls/women on social media, and watching porn. Girls scored significantly higher than boys on watching sexualized boys/men on social media, watching reality tv, watching sexualized music videos of female artists, and parental restrictions with regard to sex/dating and sexual media. We did not find gender differences in adolescents’ SDS-norms, injunctive SDS-norms of the media, peers or parents, perceived sexual activity of female peers and male peers, and watching music videos of male artists.

Predictors of Adolescents’ SDS-Norms

Table ​ Table4 4 displays results for the final hierarchical multiple regression model for adolescents’ SDS-norms. There were no indications of problematic multicollinearity between the different predictors (tolerance > 0.39, VIF < 2.56).

Hierarchical multiple regression analysis predicting adolescents’ SDS-norms from individual characteristics and SDS-Socialization by the media, peers, and parents, and moderation by adolescent gender

Table displays regression coefficients of the final model. Abbreviation D refers to descriptive norms. * p  < .05, ** p  < .01

Including relevant covariates of adolescents in Step 1 lead to a significant model ( F (6, 559) = 9.69, p  < 0.01). The model explained 9% of the variance in adolescents’ SDS-norms. Having experience with sexual intercourse and gender were not significantly associated with adolescents’ SDS-norms. However, younger age, Dutch ethnicity, having a heterosexual orientation, and a gender typical identity were associated with more traditional SDS-norms.

Perceived SDS-socialization by the Media, Peers, and Parents

In Step 2 all the sexual socialization variables were added. This lead to a significant model ( F (19, 546) = 9.81, p  < 0.01) and a significant 16% increase in the explained variance in adolescents’ SDS-norms. More traditional injunctive SDS-norms conveyed by the media and peers (as perceived by adolescents) were associated with more traditional SDS-norms of adolescents. In addition, more exposure to sexualized music videos of female artists was related to more traditional SDS-norms in adolescents (this main effect was subsumed by an interaction with adolescent gender, see Step 3). Finally, less sexually active girls in an adolescent’s peer group were associated with more traditional SDS-norms in adolescents. Adolescents’ SDS-norms were not predicted by exposure to sexualized people on social media, watching reality TV, porn, or sexualized music videos of male artists, sexual activity of boys in an adolescent’s peer group, parents’ sex, dating, and sexual media restrictions, and parents’ injunctive SDS-norms.

Interactions Between Adolescent Gender and SDS-socialization by Male and Female Media and Peer Models

In Step 3 we added the 6 interactions of adolescent gender with exposure to sexualized music videos by male and female artists, exposure to sexualized women and men on social media, and perceived sexual behavior of male and female peers. This lead to a significant model ( F (25, 540) = 8.19, p  < 0.01) and a significant 2% increase in the explained variance in adolescents’ SDS-norms. This final model explained 28% of the variance in adolescents’ SDS-norms. Only the interactions of gender with exposure to sexualized girls/women on social media and watching sexualized music videos of female artists were significant. The interaction effects are shown in Fig.  1 . For boys exposure to sexualized girls/women on social media was associated with more traditional SDS-norms ( β  = 0.16, p  < 0.05), whereas for girls this was associated with less traditional SDS-norms ( β  = -0.22, p  < 0.05; see Fig.  1 a). Similarly, boys who watched sexualized music videos of female artists endorsed more traditional SDS-norms than boys who did not watch these music videos ( t (233) = − 1.99, p  < 0.05, d  = 0.26; see Fig.  1 b). Girls who watched or did not watch sexualized music videos of female artists did not significantly differ in their SDS-norms ( t (329) = 1.03, p  = 0.31).

Adolescent gender interacting with exposure to sexy girls/women on social media ( a ) and watching sexual music videos of female artists ( b ) in predicting adolescents’ SDS-norms. Note . Error bars represent standard errors of the means

Even though we were primarily interested in testing the same-gender modeling hypothesis, we also checked whether associations between the other SDS-socialization variables (i.e., parents’ restrictions regarding sex and dating or sexual media, injunctive SDS-norms of the media, peers, and parents, exposure to reality TV or porn) and SDS-norms were different for girls and boys. Therefore, we used Fisher’s z -test to compare beta’s from separate regression analyses (including all SDS-socialization variables) of girls and boys. There were no differences between girls and boys for associations with any of the other SDS-socialization variables ( z s < 1.47, p s > 0.05).

In this study we examined associations between adolescents’ SDS-norms with several individual characteristics and SDS-socialization conveyed by the media, peers, and parents. We also explored whether associations between perceived SDS-socialization by male and female models in the media and peer context and adolescents’ SDS-norms differed between boys and girls. We found partial support for our first hypothesis because more exposure to female peers, but not to media models or male peers, who confirm the SDS (i.e., descriptive SDS-norms) was associated with more traditional SDS-norms in adolescents. The second hypothesis was also partly confirmed because more traditional injunctive SDS-norms conveyed by the media and peers, but not by parents, were associated with more traditional SDS-norms in adolescents. The third hypothesis was fully supported by the findings that SDS-norms in the media are most strongly related to adolescents’ SDS-norms, followed by SDS-norms of peers, and not by SDS-norms of parents.

Regarding SDS-socialization, more traditional injunctive SDS-norms conveyed by the media and peers, as well as less perceived sexual activity of female peers (i.e., descriptive norms), were associated with more traditional SDS-norms in adolescents. Apparently, aspects of SDS-socialization by the media and peers, and not by parents, were associated with adolescents’ SDS-norms. This is consistent with the diminishing influence of parents on adolescent development, and the increased influence of peers and the media, especially in the domain of sexual development (L’Engle & Jackson, 2008 ; L’Engle et al., 2006 ; Ragsdale et al., 2014 ; Scull et al., 2018 ). Also, adolescents perceive the media to convey more stereotypical norms about sexual behavior of girls and boys, followed by peers and parents (Epstein & Ward, 2008 ). Furthermore, adolescents’ might expect more rewards and less sanctions for not conforming to SDS-norms from peers than from parents (Kreager & Staff, 2009 ). Because of these processes, adolescents might be more motivated to internalize the perceived descriptive and injunctive norms that are conveyed by peers and the media about the SDS in their personal SDS-norms (Cialdini & Trost, 1998 ). In addition, the finding that both descriptive and injunctive SDS-norms of socializing agents are associated with adolescents’ SDS-norms indicate that both modelling/imitation and reward/punishment processes are underlying the transmission of SDS-norms (Cialdini & Trost, 1998 ).

Regarding SDS-socialization by the media, it appeared that the perceived traditional norms and messages conveyed by the media about the SDS (i.e., injunctive norms) are associated with adolescents’ SDS-norms, whereas mere exposure to descriptive SDS models in the media is not (at least not in the group of adolescents as a whole). This finding fits with research showing that the perceptions about media content might be better predictors of personal attitudes and behavior than mere exposure (Epstein & Ward, 2008 ; Peter & Valkenburg, 2010 ).

Regarding SDS-socialization by peers, as expected, adolescents perceived their male peers to be more sexually active than their female peers, which provides a descriptive model for the SDS. Consequently, less perceived sexual activity of female peers was associated with more traditional SDS-norms in both boys and girls. Interestingly, only the descriptive norm conveyed by the sexual behavior of female peers, and not of male peers, was associated with adolescents’ SDS-norms. It might be the case that when the sexual behavior of female peers does not conform to the SDS this might be more salient for adolescents than when the sexual behavior of male peers does not conform to the SDS. Therefore, the sexual behavior of female peers might be more informative for adolescents’ SDS-norms. Some support for this reasoning is provided by research showing that women who violate the SDS are evaluated less positively than men who violate the SDS (Young et al., 2016 ).

Not only the perceived sexual behavior of male and female peers, but also the injunctive SDS-norms conveyed by peers were related to adolescents’ SDS-norms. When peers are more approving of boys’ having casual sex they are of girls’ engaging in the same behavior, this conveys support for traditional SDS-norms. Our findings fit with meta-analytic evidence that both injunctive and descriptive norms of peers about sex are associated with adolescents’ sexual outcomes (Van de Bongardt et al., 2015 ). However, we extend this research by showing that the perceived sexual behavior of male and female peers, as well as the specific SDS -attitudes of peers are associated with adolescents’ SDS-norms. In future research it would be interesting to examine whether perceived and actual behaviors and attitudes of social referents have different effects on adolescents SDS-cognitions and behavior (Cialdini & Trost, 1998 ).

The lack of association between perceived parental rules about sex, dating, and sexual media use and adolescents’ SDS-norms might be due to a lack of insight of adolescents into the actual rules parents set in this regard (Rogers et al., 2006 ). Future research could examine whether parent-reported rules about sex, dating, and sexual media use, but also of parents’ self-reported injunctive SDS-norms are better predictors of adolescents’ SDS-norms. However, it is also possible that whether adolescents actually follow or ignore parental rules about dating and sex (Hovell et al., 1994 ) or parental enforcement of these rules (Dittus et al., 2015 ) are more important predictors of adolescents sexual behavior and cognitions than adolescents perceptions of parental rules about dating and sex. Furthermore, the different ways in which parents communicate about sex with girls and boys might also be important predictors of adolescents’ SDS-norms. For instance, girls received more restrictive sex messages from their parents, whereas boys received more positive-sex messages (Flores & Barroso, 2017 ; Morgan et al., 2010 ) which confirms traditional SDS-norms. A final reason for the lack of effects found for parents’ injunctive SDS-norms is that parents might not convey to their adolescents the rather explicit messages we examined (e.g., “Boys are more entitled to sexual pleasure than girls”). Parents instead might be more subtle in their messages (e.g., “It is more appropriate for boys than for girls to have sexual intercourse at an early age”).

Gender-Specific Modeling of Socializing Agents in the Media and the Peer Group

First, no gender-specific associations were found between adolescents’ SDS-norms and the perceived sexual behavior of male and female peers. Thus, for boys and girls the perceived sexual behavior of both male and female peers are important in relation to their personal SDS-norms. Second, only for boys, exposure to sexualized girls/women on social media and sexualized music videos of female artists, as well as injunctive SDS-norms conveyed by the media were associated with more traditional SDS-norms. Both findings for peer and media models do not completely fit with social learning theory’s propositions about the importance of same-gender modelling (Bandura, 1977 ). For boys’ SDS-norms, opposite-gender models in the media are apparently more informing. This could be because sexualized music videos of female artists have been found to contain more sexual-objectification (i.e., portray women as sex objects) than music videos of male artists (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011 ). Women are also more likely to engage in sexual self-objectification on social media than men (Hall et al., 2012 ; Manago et al., 2008 ). Consequently, exposure to high levels of sexual objectification in sexualized music videos of female artists or in female social media profiles are related to rape myth stereotypes (Kistler & Lee, 2010 ) and stereotyped beliefs about women’s sexual behavior (Aubrey et al., 2011 ). These associations are found primarily for men, possibly because women might be more offended by the sexualized presentation of women in the media (Ward, 2016 ). For boys, exposure to sexual objectification of female bodies in the media may prime a schema of women as sexual objects and associated expectations of female sexual reactiveness and submissiveness (Aubrey et al., 2011 ). On the other hand, for girls exposure to sexualized females on social media might signal the sexual autonomy of women which does not fit with traditional SDS-norms. It should be mentioned that the modeling effect in music videos is difficult to interpret as music videos of female artists often also include men, and videos of male artists often include women. Therefore, it is unclear which models actually inform boys’ SDS-norms.

Interestingly, associations between sexual media exposure and boys’ SDS-norms were particularly found for social media and sexualized music videos, and not for pornography or reality tv. Thus, social media and sexualized music videos might be relatively more important than pornography and reality tv in relation to adolescents’ SDS-norms. The importance of sexual female models on social media is not surprising considering that on social media adolescents are also exposed to feedback of other people on the sexual appearance of girls/women, in the form of for example slut-shaming. As such social media might combine SDS-socialization by two socializing agents, i.e., peers and the media. In addition, social media feature “real” peers that are easy to identify with, instead of actors such as in porn (Ward, 2016 ). Yet, the lack of association with exposure to “real” models in reality tv shows might be due to the low frequency of adolescents’ watching the shows that were examined in this study. More extensive analysis of the sexual content of a wide range of reality tv programs is necessary, as well as studies examining how exposure to sexual content featuring reality characters relates to viewers sexual behavior and cognitions. The importance of sexualized music videos can be explained by their construction around common, simple social events and themes that can be easily represented in memory in the form of scripts about the sexual behavior of women and men (Hansen, 1989 ).

Individual Characteristics of Adolescents

For the covariates, younger age, Dutch ethnicity, having a heterosexual orientation, and a gender typical identity were associated with more traditional SDS-norms. We will only discuss unexpected effects or effects that might have clear practical implications. First, the finding that younger adolescents in our sample endorsed more traditional SDS-norms suggests that pressure to conform to gender norms might be higher earlier in adolescence than later in adolescence (Basow & Rubin, 1999 ; Hill & Lynch, 1983 ). Therefore, interventions aimed at targeting SDS-norms should commence early in adolescence. Second, the finding for Dutch ethnicity might be obscured because the group of adolescents with a non-Dutch background was highly diverse in terms of ethnicity.

Practical Implications

Our findings have some practical implications for future interventions or sex education programs. First, our findings signal the need for incorporation of topics related to the SDS in sex education, as adolescents hold stereotypical expectations about the sexual behavior of men and women that might hamper their sexual development. Currently, many Western sex education programs in schools do not include SDS-related topics such as slut-shaming, sexual coerciveness of men, or sexual pressure exerted on men (e.g., de Graaf et al., 2017 ; Hall et al., 2019 ). Second, the relative importance of media and peers in the transmission of SDS-norms to adolescents suggests that interventions should focus on increasing adolescents’ resilience to the normative influence of the media and peers. Considering that we focused primarily on adolescents’ perception of the SDS-norms conveyed by the media and peers, resilience might be fostered by providing adolescents with nuanced information about girls’ and boys’ healthy and realistic engagement in sexual behavior. In addition, adolescent’s resilience to sexual media, in particular sexualized social media and music videos, might be increased by informing them about the unrealistic sexual standards set in the media. Providing adolescents with accurate information about the prevalence of SDS-related behaviors (i.e., descriptive norms) as well as attitudes (i.e., injunctive norms) among peers and in the media, might lead to a reduction in misperceptions of the sexual behavior of women and men (Brechwald & Prinstein, 2011 ; Prentice & Miller, 1996 ). This approach has proven to be effective in the prevention of adolescent risk behavior (Prentice, 2008 ). Finally, as we found that most predictors of adolescents’ SDS-norms were the same for boys and girls, the content of interventions and sex education targeting the SDS could be the same for both genders. Providing the same content to boys and girls might be particularly important as it has been argued that different programs for boys and girls might maintain sexual stereotypes (Szirom, 2017 ).

Limitations and Future Directions

Our findings must be viewed in light of some limitations. Because of the correlational design of this study, we were not able to determine the direction of effects in the association between adolescents’ SDS-norms and SDS-socialization by the media, peers, and parents. Therefore, we were not able to conclude whether our results reflect selection effects (e.g., adolescents with traditional SDS-norms hanging out with peers with similar normative beliefs, or choosing to watch media with sexual content), socialization effects (e.g., adolescents internalize similar SDS-norms as their peers, or engage in similar sexual behaviors as models in the media), or both. Long-term longitudinal studies examining bidirectional associations between SDS-socialization and adolescents’ SDS-norms can provide further clarity on the relative importance of selection and socialization effects.

Further, we only used self-report measures to assess adolescents’ SDS-norms and their correlates, which increases the risk of social desirability in responding and of shared-method variance. However, self-reports are appropriate to employ, considering our focus on perceived SDS-socialization practices. Moreover, correlations between self-reported aspects of personal SDS-norms and socialization could be seen as an indication of the importance of cognitive schemas in people’s representations of the SDS. In addition, adolescents could complete the online survey anonymously and there was considerable variation in adolescents’ SDS-norms which was not related to educational level, which suggests that social desirability issues were unlikely to be present.

In addition, the factor loadings of the questionnaire assessing adolescent SDS-norms were on the low side. This is most likely due to the 3-point response we used. Scales with few response options are known to be related to lower reliability and reduced association between items (e.g., Lozano et al., 2008). Future research with our SDS-norm questionnaire should preferably use a 5-point response scale (i.e., 1 = men/boys much more, 2 = boys/men somewhat more, 3 = both genders equally often, 4 = girls/women somewhat more, 5 = girls/women much more) and examine whether our findings can be replicated.

Finally, in our assessment of injunctive SDS-norms of peers we did not differentiate between male and female peers, even though female and male peer norms might be differentially related to adolescents’ SDS norms. Heterosexual adolescents might be more motivated to internalize the injunctive SDS-norms of opposite-gender peers compared to the norms of same-gender peers to come across as a desirable sexual partner. Future research could address this possibility.

In sum, our findings imply that perceived SDS-socialization by the media and peers play a role in adolescents’ expectations about the sexual behavior of women and men. Adolescent girls and boys were equally susceptible to the SDS-socialization by male and female peers, but boys were more susceptible to exposure to media with sexual content, in particular sexualized music videos of female artists and sexualized presentation of women on social media. An important next step to take is to longitudinally examine associations between SDS-socialization, adolescents’ SDS-norms, and adolescents’ own sexual behavior. This will provide essential knowledge about the developmental processes underling SDS endorsement and enactment. Regarding practical implications, our findings show that intervention efforts targeting SDS-norms should commence early in adolescence and focus on increasing adolescents’ resilience to the normative influence of the media and peers. Such intervention efforts might contribute to adolescents’ endorsement of egalitarian sexual standards for women and men, and freedom for both women and men to express their sexuality in the way they desire.

Appendix 1: Overview of Items in the Questionnaires Assessing SDS-norms

Adolescent questionnaire.

Who do you expect to more often show the following behaviors?

• Refusing sex.
• Taking the initiative in sex.
• Having different sexual partners at the same time.
• Acting in a more reserved way concerning sex.
• Having sex without love.
• Having a lot of knowledge about sex.
• Finding sex important.
• Taking the dominant role in sex.
• Using sexually explicit talk.
• Applying some pressure on another person to get what one wants sexually.
• Keeping one’s virginity until marriage.
• Having unusual sexual desires.
• Looking attractive.
• Act as if one is sexually active, even if it is not true.
• Frequent masturbating.

Questionnaires Assessing Perceived Injunctive SDS-norms Conveyed by Parents, Peers, and the Media

• [My parents think/My friends think/According to the media] boys are more entitled to sexual pleasure than girls.
• [My parents think/My friends think/According to the media] it is more appropriate for a boy than for a girl to masturbate frequently.
• [My parents think/My friends think/According to the media] it is important for a boy to act as if he is sexually active, even if it is not true.
• [My parents think/My friends think/According to the media] a boy should be more knowledgeable about sex than a girl.
• [My parents think/My friends think/According to the media] girls should act in a more reserved way concerning sex than boys.
• [My parents think/My friends think/According to the media] cheating is to be expected more from boys than from girls.
• [My parents think/My friends think/According to the media] it is normal for boys to take the dominant role in sex.
• [My parents think/My friends think/According to the media] Sex is more important for boys than for girls.

Appendix 2: Factor Analyses Showing Distinction Between Different Questionnaires

See Tables ​ Tables5, 5 , ​ ,6, 6 , ​ ,7, 7 , ​ ,8, 8 , ​ ,9 9 and ​ and10 10 .

Factor loadings of CATPCA with promax rotation for distinction between adolescents’ SDS-norms and injunctive sds-norms conveyed by parents

Factor loadings in bold reflect loadings higher than .30

Factor loadings of CATPCA with promax rotation for distinction between adolescents’ SDS-norms and injunctive sds-norms conveyed by peers

Factor loadings of CATPCA with promax rotation for distinction between adolescents’ SDS-norms and injunctive sds-norms conveyed by the media

Factor loadings of CATPCA with promax rotation for distinction between adolescents’ SDS-norms and perceived sexual activity of peers

Factor loadings for CATPCA with promax rotation for distinction between injunctive SDS-norms conveyed by parents. peers. and the media

This work was not funded by an external funder.

Declarations

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

The Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Utrecht University approved the study (Number FETC17-100).

All participants provided online informed consent for their participation at the beginning of the questionnaire.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Northwestern University Law Review

Home > Northwestern University Law Review > NULR > Vol. 112 > Iss. 5 (2018)

Lone Wolf Terrorism: Types, Stripes, and Double Standards

Khaled A. Beydoun

Publication Date

The recent spike in mass shootings, topped by the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas massacre, dubbed the “deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history,” has brought newfound urgency and attention to lone wolf violence and terrorism. Although a topic of pressing concern, the phenomenon—which centers on mass violence inflicted by one individual—is underexamined and undertheorized within legal literature. This scholarly neglect facilitates flat understandings of the phenomenon and enables the racial and religious double standards arising from law enforcement investigations and prosecutions of white and Muslim lone wolves.

This Essay contributes a timely reconceptualization of the phenomenon, coupled with a typology adopted from social science, for understanding the myriad forms of lone wolf terrorism. In addition to contributing the theoretical frameworks to further examine lone wolf terrorism within legal scholarship, this Essay examines how the assignment of the lone wolf designation by law enforcement functions as: (1) a presumptive exemption from terrorism for white culprits and (2) a presumptive connection to terrorism for Muslim culprits. This asymmetry is rooted in the distinct racialization of white and Muslim identity, and it is driven by War on Terror baselines that profile Muslim identity as presumptive of a terror threat.

Recommended Citation

Khaled A. Beydoun, Lone Wolf Terrorism: Types, Stripes, and Double Standards , 112 N w . U. L. R ev . 1213 (2018). https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/nulr/vol112/iss5/6

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Caitlin Clark, much like Larry Bird, the focus of talks about race and double standards in sports

Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark (22) goes to the basket against Atlanta Dream’s Nia Coffey (12) and Aerial Powers (23) during the second half of a WNBA preseason basketball game Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

FILE - Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson holds up the championship trophy as she celebrates with her team their win in the WNBA basketball finals against the Connecticut Sun, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022, in Uncasville, Conn. The two-time defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces are favored to win the title again. They return their core four players to the roster from a team that became the first in more than 20 years to repeat as champions. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

CORRECTS TO CAITLIN CLARK NOT CAITLYN CLARK - LSU’s Angel Reese, left, and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, right, pose for a photo before the WNBA basketball draft, Monday, April 15, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) is introduced before the team’s preseason WNBA basketball game against the Atlanta Dream in Indianapolis, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

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For much of the past two years, Caitlin Clark has been the centerpiece of the college basketball world.

Now Clark, like NBA Hall of Famer Larry Bird was 45 years ago, is involuntarily the focus of discussions about race and her transition to professional basketball . Though Clark hasn’t said anything to fuel the Black-white narrative surrounding her meteoric rise, talks about a double standard are being had.

“I think it’s a huge thing. I think a lot of people may say it’s not about Black and white, but to me, it is,” Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson said when asked about the race element in Clark’s popularity and before she recently signed two major endorsement deals . “It really is because you can be top notch at what you are as a Black woman, but yet maybe that’s something that people don’t want to see.

“They don’t see it as marketable, so it doesn’t matter how hard I work. It doesn’t matter what we all do as Black women, we’re still going to be swept underneath the rug. That’s why it boils my blood when people say it’s not about race because it is.”

To be clear, Clark is a skilled hardcourt savant from Iowa. Bird was a skilled hardcourt savant from Indiana State. And like Bird, Clark has captivated audiences and brought unmatched attention to women’s basketball with an ability to score from every corner of the court.

Neither Bird nor Clark were the first great white male or female pro basketball players. Jerry West is the actual NBA logo and before Clark, the long list of talented white WNBA players included Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart.

But sports can be elevated by a heated rivalry, particularly when race is involved.

Clark’s rise has come with an on-court bravado that made her must-watch TV as she led the Hawkeyes to back-to-back NCAA championship game appearances. When Bird led the Sycamores to the title game in 1979, he squared off against Magic Johnson in one of the most-watched games in NCAA tourney history.

At Iowa, Clark’s on-court rival in the NCAA Tournament was former LSU star Angel Reese . Then she took on women’s juggernaut South Carolina and coach Dawn Staley. The matchups created the kind of made-for-social media moments that captivated audiences, regardless of gender.

The matchups also led to ongoing discussions about how race plays a factor in the treatment afforded to Clark, a white woman from “America’s Heartland,” as compared to Black counterparts like Reese.

Clark has said she and Reese are just pieces of a larger movement.

“I would say me and Angel have always been great competitors,” Clark said prior to Iowa’s Elite Eight matchup with Reese and LSU in March. “I think Angel would say the same, like it’s not just us in women’s basketball. That’s not the only competitive thing about where our game is at, and that’s what makes it so good. We need multiple people to be really good.”

Still, the race-based debate over perceived slights to Black players or favoritism toward Clark is not going away as the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft prepares for her first regular-season game on Tuesday night when Indiana plays Connecticut.

“I think new fans, or maybe returning fans to women’s college basketball, have been drawn in. In part because of Clark. But also, you know, because of the LSU-Iowa rivalry,” said Victoria Jackson, a sports historian and clinical associate professor of history at Arizona State University.

“There are basketball reasons,” Jackson said, “but also there are racial reasons for why Clark has been able to kind of break off into a completely different stratosphere from players that came before her.”

Because of the perceived double-standard, nearly everything involving Clark gets questioned:

— Clark’s first preseason game was streamed , but Reese’s was not.

— Clark gets an endorsement deal. Other established Black stars not so much.

— If Reese talks trash , it’s viewed as unsportsmanlike. If Clark does it, she’s being competitive.

— Reese received some backlash for going to the Met Gala before a game, raising questions would there have been same type of scrutiny if Clark had graced the red carpet.

Wilson, who signed with Gatorade last week and announced Saturday that she is getting a Nike signature shoe, and others have cited how companies are clamoring to be in business with Clark as an example of the disparity in how players are treated.

The deal Clark struck with Nike will reportedly pay her $28 million over eight years — making it the richest sponsorship contract for a women’s basketball player, and it includes a signature shoe. Before Wilson’s announcement Saturday, the only other active players in the WNBA with a signature shoe were Elena Delle Donne, Sabrina Ionescu and Stewart – who are all white.

The perception extends beyond endorsements.

While Clark’s preseason debut was available on the WNBA League Pass streaming app, a post on the X platform from the WNBA incorrectly stated that all games , including the debut of Reese and fellow rookie former South Carolina standout Kamilla Cardoso for the Chicago Sky, would also be available.

So, a fan in attendance at the Sky’s game livestreamed it. It received more than 620,000 views.

In an apology post explaining why the Sky’s game wasn’t also available, the WNBA said Clark’s game was available as part of a limited free preview of its streaming app.

There also have been racial components to how Clark is treated on social media as compared to others, most notably Reese.

Reese, who has previously spoken about the vitriol she received online, was recently attacked again after she missed a preseason practice to attend the Met Gala. Clark also has been the target of online criticism, but apparently not to the extent that Reese has been.

Online hate-speech accounts for approximately 1 percent of all social media posts in the context of sports, according to Daniel Kilvington, course director in Media & Cultural Studies at Leeds Beckett University in Leeds, England.

“Although this might sound quite low, consider how much traffic is online and how many posts are made every single day,” said Kilvington, whose work with the Tackling Online Hate in Football research group has looked at the issue through the sport of soccer. “One percent is therefore 1% too high as athletes are primary targets of hate-speech, harassment and death threats simply for playing a game they love.”

But as Clark’s popularity grows, so will the debate. Jackson believes it’s a good time to openly have discussions about it.

“I don’t know how many times I read and heard her described as generational talent,” the ASU professor said. “And whenever we’re making those cases, I immediately think, well, who are the other generational talents we’ve had? And, I think too often the athletes could be placed in that category who have been Black women have not had that sort of gushing attention. And especially the kind of general public, crossover saturation that Caitlin Clark has had.

“There are overlapping, intersecting reasons for why that is. But, I think we can’t not think about it if the goal here is to have equitable treatment of the athletes in the sport.”

AP Sports Writer Mark Anderson and AP reporter Corey Williams contributed.

WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

What Makes a Thesis Statement Spectacular? — 5 things to know

Table of Contents

What Is a Thesis Statement?

A thesis statement is a declarative sentence that states the primary idea of an essay or a research paper . In this statement, the authors declare their beliefs or what they intend to argue in their research study. The statement is clear and concise, with only one or two sentences.

Thesis Statement — An Essential in Thesis Writing

A thesis statement distills the research paper idea into one or two sentences. This summary organizes your paper and develops the research argument or opinion. The statement is important because it lets the reader know what the research paper will talk about and how the author is approaching the issue. Moreover, the statement also serves as a map for the paper and helps the authors to track and organize their thoughts more efficiently.

A thesis statement can keep the writer from getting lost in a convoluted and directionless argument. Finally, it will also ensure that the research paper remains relevant and focused on the objective.

Where to Include the Thesis Statement?

The thesis statement is typically placed at the end of the introduction section of your essay or research paper. It usually consists of a single sentence of the writer’s opinion on the topic and provides a specific guide to the readers throughout the paper.

6 Steps to Write an Impactful Thesis Statement

Step 1 – analyze the literature.

Identify the knowledge gaps in the relevant research paper. Analyze the deeper implications of the author’s research argument. Was the research objective mentioned in the thesis statement reversed later in the discussion or conclusion? Does the author contradict themselves? Is there a major knowledge gap in creating a relevant research objective? Has the author understood and validated the fundamental theories correctly? Does the author support an argument without having supporting literature to cite? Answering these or related questions will help authors develop a working thesis and give their thesis an easy direction and structure.

Step 2 – Start with a Question

While developing a working thesis, early in the writing process, you might already have a research question to address. Strong research questions guide the design of studies and define and identify specific objectives. These objectives will assist the author in framing the thesis statement.

Step 3 – Develop the Answer

After initial research, the author could formulate a tentative answer to the research question. At this stage, the answer could be simple enough to guide the research and the writing process. After writing the initial answer, the author could elaborate further on why this is the chosen answer. After reading more about the research topic, the author could write and refine the answers to address the research question.

Step 4 – Write the First Draft of the Thesis Statement

After ideating the working thesis statement, make sure to write it down. It is disheartening to create a great idea for a thesis and then forget it when you lose concentration. The first draft will help you think clearly and logically. It will provide you with an option to align your thesis statement with the defined research objectives.

Step 5 – Anticipate Counter Arguments Against the Statement

After developing a working thesis, you should think about what might be said against it. This list of arguments will help you refute the thesis later. Remember that every argument has a counterargument, and if yours does not have one, what you state is not an argument — it may be a fact or opinion, but not an argument.

Step 6 – Refine the Statement

Anticipating counterarguments will help you refine your statement further. A strong thesis statement should address —

• Why does your research hold this stand?
• What will readers learn from the essay?
• Are the key points of your argumentative or narrative?
• Does the final thesis statement summarize your overall argument or the entire topic you aim to explain in the research paper?

5 Tips to Create a Compelling Thesis Statement

A thesis statement is a crucial part of any academic paper. Clearly stating the main idea of your research helps you focus on the objectives of your paper. Refer to the following tips while drafting your statement:

1. Keep it Concise

The statement should be short and precise. It should contain no more than a couple of sentences.

2. Make it Specific

The statement should be focused on a specific topic or argument. Covering too many topics will only make your paper weaker.

3. Express an Opinion

The statement should have an opinion on an issue or controversy. This will make your paper arguable and interesting to read.

4. Be Assertive

The statement should be stated assertively and not hesitantly or apologetically. Remember, you are making an argument — you need to sound convincing!

5. Support with Evidence

The thesis should be supported with evidence from your paper. Make sure you include specific examples from your research to reinforce your objectives.

Thesis Statement Examples *

Example 1 – alcohol consumption.

High levels of alcohol consumption have harmful effects on your health, such as weight gain, heart disease, and liver complications.

This thesis statement states specific reasons why alcohol consumption is detrimental. It is not required to mention every single detriment in your thesis.

Example 2 – Benefits of the Internet

The internet serves as a means of expediently connecting people across the globe, fostering new friendships and an exchange of ideas that would not have occurred before its inception.

While the internet offers a host of benefits, this thesis statement is about choosing the ability that fosters new friendships and exchange ideas. Also, the research needs to prove how connecting people across the globe could not have happened before the internet’s inception — which is a focused research statement.

*The following thesis statements are not fully researched and are merely examples shown to understand how to write a thesis statement. Also, you should avoid using these statements for your own research paper purposes.

A gripping thesis statement is developed by understanding it from the reader’s point of view. Be aware of not developing topics that only interest you and have less reader attraction. A harsh yet necessary question to ask oneself is — Why should readers read my paper? Is this paper worth reading? Would I read this paper if I weren’t its author?

A thesis statement hypes your research paper. It makes the readers excited about what specific information is coming their way. This helps them learn new facts and possibly embrace new opinions.

Writing a thesis statement (although two sentences) could be a daunting task. Hope this blog helps you write a compelling one! Do consider using the steps to create your thesis statement and tell us about it in the comment section below.

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Thesis and Dissertation Guide

• « Thesis & Dissertation Resources
• The Graduate School Home

• Introduction
• Copyright Page
• Dedication, Acknowledgements, Preface (optional)
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables, Figures, and Illustrations
• List of Abbreviations
• List of Symbols

Non-Traditional Formats

Font type and size, spacing and indentation, tables, figures, and illustrations, formatting previously published work.

• Internet Distribution
• Open Access
• Registering Copyright
• Using Copyrighted Materials
• Use of Your Own Previously Published Materials
• Submission Steps
• Submission Checklist
• Sample Pages

II. Formatting Guidelines

All copies of a thesis or dissertation must have the following uniform margins throughout the entire document:

• Left: 1″ (or 1 1/4" to ensure sufficient room for binding the work if desired)
• Right: 1″
• Bottom: 1″ (with allowances for page numbers; see section on Pagination )
• Top: 1″

Exceptions : The first page of each chapter (including the introduction, if any) begins 2″ from the top of the page. Also, the headings on the title page, abstract, first page of the dedication/ acknowledgements/preface (if any), and first page of the table of contents begin 2″ from the top of the page.

Non-traditional theses or dissertations such as whole works comprised of digital, artistic, video, or performance materials (i.e., no written text, chapters, or articles) are acceptable if approved by your committee and graduate program. A PDF document with a title page, copyright page, and abstract at minimum are required to be submitted along with any relevant supplemental files.

Fonts must be 10, 11, or 12 points in size. Superscripts and subscripts (e.g., formulas, or footnote or endnote numbers) should be no more than 2 points smaller than the font size used for the body of the text.

Space and indent your thesis or dissertation following these guidelines:

• The text must appear in a single column on each page and be double-spaced throughout the document. Do not arrange chapter text in multiple columns.
• New paragraphs must be indicated by a consistent tab indentation throughout the entire document.
• The document text must be left-justified, not centered or right-justified.
• For blocked quotations, indent the entire text of the quotation consistently from the left margin.
• Ensure headings are not left hanging alone on the bottom of a prior page. The text following should be moved up or the heading should be moved down. This is something to check near the end of formatting, as other adjustments to text and spacing may change where headings appear on the page.

Exceptions : Blocked quotations, notes, captions, legends, and long headings must be single-spaced throughout the document and double-spaced between items.

Paginate your thesis or dissertation following these guidelines:

• Use lower case Roman numerals (ii, iii, iv, etc.) on all pages preceding the first page of chapter one. The title page counts as page i, but the number does not appear. Therefore, the first page showing a number will be the copyright page with ii at the bottom.
• Arabic numerals (beginning with 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) start at chapter one or the introduction, if applicable. Arabic numbers must be included on all pages of the text, illustrations, notes, and any other materials that follow. Thus, the first page of chapter one will show an Arabic numeral 1, and numbering of all subsequent pages will follow in order.
• Do not use page numbers accompanied by letters, hyphens, periods, or parentheses (e.g., 1., 1-2, -1-, (1), or 1a).
• Center all page numbers at the bottom of the page, 1/2″ from the bottom edge.
• Pages must not contain running headers or footers, aside from page numbers.
• If your document contains landscape pages (pages in which the top of the page is the long side of a sheet of paper), make sure that your page numbers still appear in the same position and direction as they do on pages with standard portrait orientation for consistency. This likely means the page number will be centered on the short side of the paper and the number will be sideways relative to the landscape page text. See these additional instructions for assistance with pagination on landscape pages in Microsoft Word .

Format footnotes for your thesis or dissertation following these guidelines:

• Footnotes must be placed at the bottom of the page separated from the text by a solid line one to two inches long.
• Begin at the left page margin, directly below the solid line.
• Single-space footnotes that are more than one line long.
• Include one double-spaced line between each note.
• Most software packages automatically space footnotes at the bottom of the page depending on their length. It is acceptable if the note breaks within a sentence and carries the remainder into the footnote area of the next page. Do not indicate the continuation of a footnote.
• Number all footnotes with Arabic numerals. You may number notes consecutively within each chapter starting over with number 1 for the first note in each chapter, or you may number notes consecutively throughout the entire document.
• Footnote numbers must precede the note and be placed slightly above the line (superscripted). Leave no space between the number and the note.
• While footnotes should be located at the bottom of the page, do not place footnotes in a running page footer, as they must remain within the page margins.

Endnotes are an acceptable alternative to footnotes. Format endnotes for your thesis or dissertation following these guidelines:

• Always begin endnotes on a separate page either immediately following the end of each chapter, or at the end of your entire document. If you place all endnotes at the end of the entire document, they must appear after the appendices and before the references.
• Include the heading “ENDNOTES” in all capital letters, and center it 1″ below the top of the first page of your endnotes section(s).
• Single-space endnotes that are more than one line long.
• Number all endnotes with Arabic numerals. You may number notes consecutively within each chapter starting over with number 1 for the first note in each chapter, or you may number notes consecutively throughout the entire document.
• Endnote numbers must precede the note and be placed slightly above the line (superscripted). Leave no space between the number and the note.

Tables, figures, and illustrations vary widely by discipline. Therefore, formatting of these components is largely at the discretion of the author.

For example, headings and captions may appear above or below each of these components.

These components may each be placed within the main text of the document or grouped together in a separate section.

Space permitting, headings and captions for the associated table, figure, or illustration must be on the same page.

The use of color is permitted as long as it is consistently applied as part of the finished component (e.g., a color-coded pie chart) and not extraneous or unprofessional (e.g., highlighting intended solely to draw a reader's attention to a key phrase). The use of color should be reserved primarily for tables, figures, illustrations, and active website or document links throughout your thesis or dissertation.

The format you choose for these components must be consistent throughout the thesis or dissertation.

Ensure each component complies with margin and pagination requirements.

Refer to the List of Tables, Figures, and Illustrations section for additional information.

If your thesis or dissertation has appendices, they must be prepared following these guidelines:

• Appendices must appear at the end of the document (before references) and not the chapter to which they pertain.
• When there is more than one appendix, assign each appendix a number or a letter heading (e.g., “APPENDIX 1” or “APPENDIX A”) and a descriptive title. You may number consecutively throughout the entire work (e.g., 1, 2 or A, B), or you may assign a two-part Arabic numeral with the first number designating the chapter in which it appears, separated by a period, followed by a second number or letter to indicate its consecutive placement (e.g., “APPENDIX 3.2” is the second appendix referred to in Chapter Three).
• Include the chosen headings in all capital letters, and center them 1″ below the top of the page.
• All appendix headings and titles must be included in the table of contents.
• Page numbering must continue throughout your appendix or appendices. Ensure each appendix complies with margin and pagination requirements.

You are required to list all the references you consulted. For specific details on formatting your references, consult and follow a style manual or professional journal that is used for formatting publications and citations in your discipline.

Your reference pages must be prepared following these guidelines:

• If you place references after each chapter, the references for the last chapter must be placed immediately following the chapter and before the appendices.
• If you place all references at the end of the thesis or dissertation, they must appear after the appendices as the final component in the document.
• Select an appropriate heading for this section based on the style manual you are using (e.g., “REFERENCES”, “BIBLIOGRAPHY”, or “WORKS CITED”).
• Include the chosen heading in all capital letters, and center it 1″ below the top of the page.
• References must be single-spaced within each entry.
• Include one double-spaced line between each reference.
• Page numbering must continue throughout your references section. Ensure references comply with margin and pagination requirements.

In some cases, students gain approval from their academic program to include in their thesis or dissertation previously published (or submitted, in press, or under review) journal articles or similar materials that they have authored. For more information about including previously published works in your thesis or dissertation, see the section on Use of Your Own Previously Published Materials and the section on Copyrighting.

If your academic program has approved inclusion of such materials, please note that these materials must match the formatting guidelines set forth in this Guide regardless of how the material was formatted for publication.

Some specific formatting guidelines to consider include:

• Fonts, margins, chapter headings, citations, and references must all match the formatting and placement used within the rest of the thesis or dissertation.
• If appropriate, published articles can be included as separate individual chapters within the thesis or dissertation.
• A separate abstract to each chapter should not be included.
• The citation for previously published work must be included as the first footnote (or endnote) on the first page of the chapter.
• Do not include typesetting notations often used when submitting manuscripts to a publisher (i.e., insert table x here).
• The date on the title page should be the year in which your committee approves the thesis or dissertation, regardless of the date of completion or publication of individual chapters.
• If you would like to include additional details about the previously published work, this information can be included in the preface for the thesis or dissertation.

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