ON GENDER-ROLE VIOLATIONS AND JUDGMENTS MADE ABOUT EUTHANASIA - A RESEARCH NOTE

The impact of perceived gender role violations oil the willingness of evaluators to label a deadly act to ''end suffering'' as euthanasia wa s explored in two studies, It was predicted that ''killing'' (even mer cy killing) Mould be perceived as more role contradictory for a female actor than for a male actor. Therefore, it was expected that the dead ly actions of a female actor Mould be judged as less justified (i.e., less likely to be labeled as euthanasia) than the same action committe d by a male actor, A total of 486 undergraduates participated in one o f two studies. It was found that although perceptions of justification for a deadly act Mere clearly influenced by whether or not the method of action taken was direct and proactive (commission) vs. indirect an d passive (omission), the gender of the actor did not impact different ly on the judgments of the participants, Possible explanations and fut ure research directions are discussed.