Unpackaging gender differences in justifying morally debatable behaviors around the world: The role of personal religiosity and society's socialization priorities for its children.

This article investigates how personal religiosity mediates gender differences in justifying three types of morally debatable behaviors—behaviors threatening human life and family values, dishonest-illegal behaviors, and interpersonally violent behaviors—across 47 societies using data from the World Values Survey Wave 7. Women reported higher personal religiosity and justified dishonest-illegal and interpersonally violent behaviors less than men, but justified behaviors threatening human life and family values more; personal religiosity only partially mediated the gender difference for the latter. Additionally, societal endorsement of preferred qualities in the socialization of children, measured along the dimensions of Self-Directedness versus Other-Directedness and Civility versus Practicality, moderated the relationship between religiosity and justification of certain behaviors, indicating that cultural socialization priorities influence how religiosity relates to moral judgments. The study highlights the importance of considering societal cultural context in understanding the interplay of gender, religiosity, and moral reasoning across diverse societies.