Children’s gendered expectations of moral parties

Do children have gendered expectations of moral parties? Here we asked 5-10-year-olds (N = 177) in the United States to indicate whether boys or girls were agents or patients of morally good and bad actions. Children of all ages, and of both genders, showed a strong and consistent expectation that boys are perpetrators of various moral wrongs. Moreover, whereas girls expected girls to be benefactors, boys had no systematic gendered expectations regarding benefactors. As for moral patiency, children picked their own gender, regardless of valence: boys chose boys as victims and beneficiaries, and girls chose girls as victims and beneficiaries. Given the potentially far-reaching implications of such moral expectations, these findings invite further questions regarding the mechanisms and consequences of these early-emerging gendered patterns.