Boys outpace girls in moral disengagement due to gendered aggression socialization.

Evidence

Gender differences are not present in the early years, but before long, boys become more facile than girls at all of the forms of moral disengagement. The differential gender proneness for moral disengagement may arise, in large part, from the gendered socialization of aggression. For males, aggressive styles of behavior are more extensively modeled, socially condoned, and invested with functional value (Bandura, 1973; Bussey & Bandura, 1999). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 257

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Gendered adolescence routes girls toward inward distress and boys toward outward aggression — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 672