What does double standard mean

If necessary, you can also ask this of the person who is applying the unequal treatment, or of someone else who is relevant to the situation. This is because false equivalences can cause you to mistakenly believe that a double standard is being applied, in situations where the things receiving unequal treatment are different in a way that merits this treatment. Once you do this, you can then actively point out the logical and moral issues with the double standard, by showing that there is no proper justification for the unequal treatment in question.

To achieve this, you will often need relevant debiasing techniques , and particularly when the double standards in question are the result of an underlying cognitive bias. For example, one bias that often plays a role when it comes to double standards is the empathy gap , which is a cognitive bias that makes it difficult for people to account for the manner in which differences in mental states affect the way that they and other people make decisions. If you see someone applying double standards as a result of this bias, you can ask them to think of situations where they experienced a similar double standard being applied toward them.

Similarly, you can ask them to consider how they would feel someone applied a similar double standard toward them, or toward someone that they care about. Finally, note that in some cases, you might be unable to get someone to stop applying a double standard, no matter what you do.

If this happens, your response should depend on the circumstance at hand. For example, if the person in question is someone that you barely know or care about, you might choose to simply stop interacting with them, and let them know why.

Then, you should point out the logical and moral issues with the double standard in question, help the person applying the standard internalize those issues, and negate their motivation for applying the standard in the first place. To avoid applying double standards yourself, you should make sure that whenever you treat two or more similar things differently, you have proper justification for doing so. The more significant the outcomes of your thoughts, statements, or actions, in terms of factors such as the impact they will have on others, the more important it is to do this.

Most notably, this involves internalizing the logical and moral issues with your reasoning, and using various debiasing techniques to help mitigate the emotional drives and reasoning errors that cause you to apply double standards in the first place. Note that you should be especially wary of applying double standards toward yourself compared to others. November 08, To top.

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Follow us. Choose a dictionary. Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English. Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English. The question of double standards as referring to different expectations in behavior for men and women emerged in the —20s. Around the same time, the idea of double standards as applying specifically to different rules for sexual activity for men and women i.

By , the expression double standard was used in just about any context to describe two different sets of rules for the same thing. With the rise of the Civil Rights movement starting in the s, activists frequently complained about the double standards for white and Black people as well as other oppressed minority groups. Double standard is often used in the plural, double standards , to refer to the many and various unfair rules or expectations that differ between different groups of people.

As noted, double standard is frequently used in the context of sex and gender. When men are forceful in a debate, they may be called assertive while women are called shrill and bossy and told to smile more— a double standard.

Unbelievable double-standard. Double standards also decry a whole range of other injustices. Many people describe, for instance, the different treatment white and Black people get by law enforcement and in the justice system as a double standard. Others describe, when it comes to religious liberties, the different treatment Christians and Muslims get in Western society as a double standard.

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