A Critical Systematic Review of Sex Differences in Psychological Morality

This is a critical systematic review of sex differences in psychological morality (registration: https://osf.io/a9sc3/), answering the following descriptive and critical research questions: Are there sex differences in any of the five themes of moral reasoning, judgment, behavior, emotions, and self-view? In sex comparisons in morality, what improvements can be made regarding participant recruitment and reflexivity; morality stimuli, measures, and analyses; and interpretation of findings?Eligible studies were those that pre-planned examining sex/gender differences in any of the five themes. PsychINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science Core Collections were searched. Study quality was assessed using a modified Downs and Black’s (1998) checklist. The patterns of sex differences in morality are explored through vote-counting (beware of its flaws). Critical appraisal is the review’s central focus.Among 771 records screened, 27 (32 studies) were included. In moral reasoning/judgment and behavior, the sexes scored similarly overall, whereas reported differences favored females. In moral emotions, females scored higher than males overall, whereas some studies found them similar. The critical question’s three components are expanded into eight subsections, through which several implicit research assumptions directing sex comparisons in morality are critiqued.Keywords: moral psychology, sex differences, gender differences, critical systematic review