Women Place Greater Importance on Moral Identity Across 67 Countries

A study of 46,490 adults across 67 countries found women generally placed more importance on moral traits as part of their identity than men did.

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A large cross-cultural psychology study examined how strongly people connect moral traits with their sense of self. Researchers analyzed survey data from 46,490 adults across 67 countries and measured two parts of moral identity: how central moral traits feel to a person privately, and how important it is to express those traits publicly. The traits included qualities such as caring, compassion, fairness, friendliness, generosity, helpfulness, honesty, kindness, and being hardworking. Women scored higher than men on both parts of moral identity, with the difference especially consistent for the private component. The study also found that age and cultural setting mattered. Within individual countries, older adults tended to place slightly more importance on moral traits, while cultural factors such as collectivism, social hierarchy, uncertainty avoidance, and the strictness of social norms were linked to different patterns of moral identity. The findings do not show that women are inherently more moral or that women behave more morally in everyday life. The study measured how important moral traits were to participants self-concepts, using a questionnaire, rather than directly measuring moral behavior. The researchers also note that cultural measures and the moral traits used in the questionnaire have limitations, so the results should be understood as a cross-cultural pattern rather than a universal definition of morality.

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