RELIGIOSITY, GENDER, AND THE DOUBLE-STANDARD

Scottish teenagers (N = 690) participated in a survey concerning the r elationship between religiosity, gender, and social judgments of sexua l activity. Respondents estimated the number of sexual partners of 20- year-old men and women and made evaluative judgments of sexually activ e men and women on positive and negative dimensions. On both tasks, ev idence was obtained for the operation of a double standard. Women were expected to have fewer sexual partners than men, and their sexual act ivity was judged more negatively on evaluatively negative dimensions. Contrary to findings of previous studies in this area, gender differen ces in endorsement of the double standard were not found. Only moderat e support was found for the view that religiosity contributes to diffe rent standards of sexual behavior for men and women, although religios ity had significantly greater influence on judgments made by women tha n on judgments made by men.