The Triple Standard: Prediction and Recommendation of Spouse-Leaving as a Function of Stimulus Person's Gender and Status

Abstract

Given the hypothetical situation of a stimulus person considering the possibility of divorcing his/her spouse because of being in love with another person, 360 undergraduate students of Bombay estimated the likelihood of the stimulus person going for a divorce and indicated the strength of their recommendation in favour of a divorce. The study had a 2 (subjects’s sex) x 2 (stimulus person’s sex) x 3 (stimulus person’s status: high, intermediate or low) x 2 (stimulus person having or not having children) factorial design with 15 subjects in each cell. Estimated likelihood of a divorce was higher for the male stimulus person than for the female stimulus person. Estimated likelihood was also higher in the case of the person having no children than in case of having children, but this difference was found to be significant only for the stimulus person of intermediate status. Strength of recommendation in favour of a divorce was higher for the female rather than the male stimulus person, in case of no children than in case of children, and for the low status rather than the high status stimulus person. The triple standard hypothesis, namely, that social norms with respect to spouse-leaving would be prejudicial to women as compared to men especially at the level of intermediate status, was not supported by the data.