“Double standard” is a pejorative term that denotes the use of a different set of principles for evaluating different groups on similar behaviors, abilities, characteristics, or attitudes such as intelligence, sexual activity, physical looks, and political or sexual orientation. This implies that one set of principles is ideal and acceptable for one group but not for another. Double standards figure prominently in social groups, with such factors as race, age, gender, religion, social class, and other markers of difference serving as the factors that determine where individuals end up in terms of having the acceptable ideal or having the unacceptable (taboo) concepts applied to them. The double standard rests on categories based on stereotypes, and they violate notions of equality and impartiality when individuals are held accountable according to different standards. Although a wide variety of double standards relate to adolescent development, the most studied are those that relate...
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Levesque, R.J.R. (2011). Double Standards. In: Levesque, R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_745
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