Who Says It's Sexual Harassment? The Effects of Gender and Likelihood to Sexually Harass on Legal Judgments of Sexual Harassment1

The effects of participants’ gender and propensity to sexually harass were examined in a sexual harassment case in which the gender of the harassers and victim were manipulated systematically. Male and female participants scoring either high or low on the Likelihood to Sexually Harass (LSH) scale (Pryor, 1987) reviewed an ostensibly real hostile work environment case and made judgments about the case. When participants were the same gender as the victim, individual differences in LSH failed to influence their judgments. When the participants’ gender was the opposite of the victim's, those low in LSH perceived the behaviors as more likely to be sexual harassment than those high in LSH. These results are discussed and their implications considered.     

Prior Allegations of Harassment Impact Mock Jurors’ Perceptions of Sexual Harassment in a Criminal Trial

The current study examined factors that may influence jurors’ judgments in a criminal sexual harassment case with Canadian undergraduate students. Undergraduate students (n?=?268) examined whether defendant’s gender, victim’s gender, and whether the victim had made similar accusations in the past were influential in mock jurors’ judgments. Participants read a case summary describing an alleged sexual harassment and answered questions concerning defendant’s guilt, defendant’s culpability, and perceptions of the victim. Additionally, attitudes concerning sexual harassment and sexism were measured. The presence of prior allegations was a driving force in mock juror decisions, with mock jurors providing more guilty verdicts, more favorable perceptions of the victim, and less favorable perceptions of the defendant when no prior allegations of harassment had been made by the victim. The results of the current study suggest that the presence of prior allegations have a large impact on mock jurors’ decisions, suggesting that prior allegations may need to be considered more closely in court before they can be used as evidence.

     

Students’ Perceptions of Sexual Harassment: Is It Harassment Only If the Offender Is a Man and the Victim Is a Woman?

The present study investigated 3 potential sources of variability in university students' perceptions of sexual harassment in hypothetical professor-student scenarios: raters'gender, gender of the professor and student, and rater' own sexual harassment. Participants were most likely to identify the interactions as harassment when they involved a male offender and a female victim. They were less likely to label the behaviors as harassment when they occurred between members of the same gender or between a female professor and a male student. Women were more open to viewing the scenarios as harassment and men were unlikely to view the interactions between a female professor and a male student as harassment. Personal history of sexual harassment did not influence participants' perceptions.     

Automatic Associations and Conscious Attitudes Predict Different Aspects of Men’s Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Harassment Proclivities

Intimate partner violence against women (IPV) and sexual harassment are both widespread. Research on their causes and attitudinal correlates has rarely examined implicit, automatic cognitive associations related to the partner (in IPV aggressors) or to women (in sexual harassment offenders). The aim of the present research was to study these implicit associations in 129 male German students. Participants completed scales of hostile sexism (HS), masculine gender role stress (MGRS), short-term (STMO) and long-term mating orientation (LTMO), and proclivity to both IPV and sexual harassment. Next they performed a primed lexical decision task that measured whether concepts of violence, power, hostility, and sexuality were differentially associated with representations of women, men, and the participant’s own intimate partner. Results showed that implicit associations of own partner with violence as well as hostility were generally high but did not correlate strongly with the proclivity measures. Furthermore, the proclivity measures were positively predicted by HS, MGRS, and STMO, whereas LTMO negatively predicted IPV proclivity. Practice implications point to the need to address early socialization processes that may shape men’s negative associations with female partners. Some strategies to prevent and reduce these types of implicit associations are discussed.

     

Context Effects on Women’s Perceptions of Stranger Harassment

The current research suggests that perceptions of stranger harassment experiences (i.e., experiencing unwanted sexual attention in public) are altered by the context of the situation. Study one investigated which elements of the situation (context) might be most influential in increasing fear and enjoyment of the catcalling experience. Attractiveness and age of the perpetrator, time of day, and whether the victim was alone or with friends were some of the categories that were selected as influencing both fear and enjoyment. Study two used a perspective taking methodology to ask women to predict a target character’s emotions, fears, and behaviors in harassment situations that varied by context. Results mirror the sexual harassment literature and suggest that harassment by younger and attractive men is viewed as less harassing. Exploratory analyses were also conducted with women’s personal experiences with stranger harassment as well as gender differences in perceptions. Context plays a vital role in interpretation of stranger harassment.     

Women's and Men's Reactions to Man-to-Man Sexual Harassment: Does the Sexual Orientation of the Victim Matter?

We manipulated the sexual orientation of the victim in a hypothetical case to address 3 key questions: Is it harassment, does the case need to be investigated further, and is the harasser's behavior punishable? Our sample comprised 433 undergraduates (91.5% of whom were White). We hypothesized that women would rate the case as more sexually harassing, as needing further investigation, and as more punishable than men would. We also hypothesized that the sexual orientation of the victim would affect perceptions of the case; specifically, students would significantly rate the incident as more harassing, as needing further investigation, and would recommend more punishment when the victim was homosexual rather than heterosexual. We hypothesized that female respondents would perceive more categories of inappropriate behaviors perpetrated by men on other men as constituting sexual harassment than would male respondents. Furthermore, we hypothesized that lewd comments and enforcement of the traditional masculine gender role would predict responses to the 3 key questions asked about the case. With the exception of recommending greater punishment when the victim was homosexual rather than heterosexual, all hypotheses were supported.     

Predictors of Turkish Women’s and Men’s Attitudes toward Sexual Harassment: Ambivalent Sexism, and Ambivalence Toward Men

This study examined the relationships among ambivalent sexism (hostile/benevolent), ambivalence toward men (hostility/benevolence) and Turkish women/men’s attitudes toward sexual harassment, including attitudes toward viewing sexual harassment as a result of provocative behaviors of women (ASHPBW) and attitudes toward viewing sexual harassment as a trivial matter (ASHTM). Participants included 220 Turkish undergraduates (136 female; M_age?=?20.00). They tended to blame women for the incidents of sexual harassment whereas they viewed sexual harassment as a very important social problem. As compared to women, men scored higher in both ASHPBW and ASHTM, suggesting that men are more tolerant of sexual harassment. For both genders, hostile sexism and benevolence toward men predicted ASHPBW. However, for only men, hostile and benevolent sexism predicted ASHTM.     

Men’s Empathic Bias, Empathic Inaccuracy, and Sexual Harassment

This study investigated the relationship between men’s sexual harassment of women and men accuracy and bias when inferring women’s critical or rejecting thoughts and feelings. Eighty married men from the Arlington, Texas, USA community participated. Results indicated that men’s sexual harassment behavior is negatively related to men’s accuracy in determining when women have critical or rejecting thoughts or feelings. Further, men’s sexual harassment behavior is positively related to men’s bias to overattribute criticism and rejection. This pattern of findings suggests that male sexual harassers tend to over-infer women’s criticism and rejection and make these inferences at the wrong times. These findings also support recent speculation that men’s sexual harassment of women is related to aggression rather than seduction.     

Social Aspects of Women’s Experiences of Sexual Harassment in Public Places in Iran

Sexual harassment in public places is a forbidden form of sex discrimination that includes both verbal and nonverbal behaviors—such as wolf whistles, leers, winks, grabs, pinches, catcalls, and street remarks—and is often overlooked by social science researchers. The present study, using mixed methods and “exploratory design-instrument development method” was conducted to investigate the aspects of Iranian women’s experiences of sexual harassment in public places using a student sample. Using the grounded theory method, the qualitative part of this study was conducted by face-to-face, in-depth interviews with 16 female students of Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran, which resulted in seven axial categories and one core category. The results of the qualitative part of the study were used to develop the instrument of the quantitative part, the questionnaire. Using the survey technique, the quantitative phase of this study employed a sample of 369 female students of Shiraz University, selected by stratified sampling. Data analysis procedures included a theme analysis of the interviews, a statistical analysis of the survey, and an integrated consideration of the qualitative and quantitative results. We found that experiencing sexual harassment is significantly correlated with presence in public places, acceptance of gender rules, mother’s education and the kind of women’s dressing and make up.     

The Experience of Sexual Harassment Among Grade-School Students: Early Socialization of Female Subordination?

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary school children's interpretation of sexual harassment incidents and the relationship of those interpretations to self-esteem and body esteem. Eleven scenarios were read to 73 third- to fifth-grade children. Eight scenarios exemplified peer harassment. The children were asked how they thought the victim felt, what the victim should do, why the perpetrator did this, and whether something similar had ever happened to them. They also completed gender role, self-esteem, and body esteem scales. Results indicated that the majority of the children had experienced peer harassment and that the boys and girls had experienced about equal amounts. However, total harassment was negatively related to self-esteem in girls, but not boys. Furthermore, the children's interpretations of the scenarios as well as the relationship of these interpretations to body and self-esteem indicated that the meaning of sexual harassment was different for the boys and girls. Girls were more likely to think the victim would be frightened and boys more likely to think that the victim would be flattered by the attention. Girls who reported that the victim would be frightened or that they did not know how the victim would react reported lower body esteem. These data are interpreted within the framework of sexual terrorism and sexual objectification theories. These data also underscore the need for additional research in sexual harassment among young children.     

Bystanders’ Reactions to Sexual Harassment

The purpose of this investigation was to examine bystanders’ reactions to observing sexual harassment. Undergraduate students (n?=?107 and n?=?122, respectively) in the Southwest U.S. participated in two experiments in which they read about cases of sexual harassment and responded with their preferred punishment for the offenses. Findings from both studies demonstrate the importance of (a) a proactive organizational culture, (b) handing down punishments for sexual harassment that match both the severity of the infraction and the culture of the workplace, and (c) remaining cognizant of the potential differences in the ways women and men respond to observing sexual harassment in the workplace.     

Sexual Harassment in Educational Institutions in Delhi’ NCR (India): Level of Awareness,Perception and Experience

This study examined the level of awareness of sexual harassment in educational institutions in Delhi NCR (India). This paper grouped the results of all respondents into two categories, i.e. Private and State institutions, wherein a total number of 430 respondents were selected from ten private and state universities by simple random sampling from their respective law faculties. The statistical tools used in analyzing the data collected were frequency and chi square which revealed that the level of awareness of private or individually owned institutions is relatively high but lacks clarity, and boils down to a lower level of awareness as compared with state or government owned institutions. The findings also revealed that private universities experience sexual harassment just like state universities. Based on these results, the author recommends the augmentation of awareness programs in all universities, especially private ones. Compulsory sexual education courses for new intakes could be arranged, and final year students could also be re-oriented before they graduate.     

Do Actions Speak Louder Than Words? A Comparison of Three Organizational Practices for Reducing Racial/Ethnic Harassment and Discrimination

We assessed the effectiveness of three commonly suggested organizational practices for reducing racial/ethnic harassment and discrimination (REHD): training; resources for reporting REHD; and implementation actions taken by leadership to reduce REHD. In a sample of 39,475 U.S. military personnel, we conducted dominance analyses to examine the relative contributions of these practices to REHD. Implementation contributed more to the prediction of REHD than did training or resources. Moreover, implementation moderated the effect of resources and training. This suggests that active leadership effort to address REHD can be 1 of the most effective means of reducing such behavior.     

Why Don’t We Report Sexual Harassment? An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

The study found that an individual’s attitudes toward the behavior, normative beliefs, and perceived behavioral control predicted an individual’s intention to report an incident of hostile environment sexual harassment. Even though women indicated a greater intention to report, there was not a gender difference in whether an individual reported an incident of hostile environment sexual harassment. Our findings provide support for the theory of planned behavior as a model for predicting an individual’s intention to report sexual harassment. These findings provide insight for the formulation of policy and procedures and the development of training programs to facilitate reporting of incidents.     

��You��re Such a Girl!�� The Psychological Drain of the Gender-Role Harassment of Men

Men experience gender-role harassment when they are ridiculed or ostracized for being ??not man enough?? (Berdahl 2007). Although men??s emotional (e.g. shame and anxiety) and behavioural reactions (e.g. aggression) to gender-threatening feedback have been documented (Vandello et al. 2008), potential cognitive and self-regulatory consequences of this form of harassment have yet to be investigated. In the present experiment, 84 Introductory Psychology men at a Canadian university (Winnipeg, Manitoba) either experienced or did not experience gender-role harassment (i.e. told they squeezed a handgrip ??like a girl??) before completing a set of tests (an anagram test, a stroop color-naming task, and a subsequent handgrip task). To ensure our experimental manipulation invoked a threat to participant??s sense of manliness, we also included an open-ended measure of self-identification. In accordance with Social Identity research (Ellemers, Spears, & Doosje, 2002), we anticipated that harassed men would affirm male self-aspects significantly more so than non-harassed men. Overall, results demonstrated that, as predicted, gender-role harassment significantly threatened participant??s sense of manhood, compromised cognitive ability, and weakened attentional self-control compared to the no harassment control condition. However, contrary to predictions, harassment did not weaken self-regulatory physical strength: men in the harassment condition exhibited increased handgrip strength compared to men in the no harassment condition, suggesting potential compensatory reactions occurred, as well. Implications of gender-role harassment for men??s psychological well-being, intellect, and impulse control are discussed and areas for future research are outlined.     

Organizational Responses for Preventing and Stopping Sexual Harassment: Effective Deterrents or Continued Endurance?

Survey data from a student population of experienced workers was used to examine perceptions of organizational responses to sexual harassment. Results revealed significant differences in the perceived seriousness of gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual coercion. Moreover, women viewed all three types of harassment as being significantly more serious than men. Terminating perpetrators’ employment, providing a verbal/written reprimand, and mandating an apology were rated as being the most common organizational responses to sexual harassment. A significant positive relationship existed between perceived organizational response severity and effectiveness in combating harassment. Results partially supported the notion that more severe responses are associated with greater effectiveness in communicating organizational intolerance of harassment. Contrary to hypotheses, ratings of organizational response effectiveness and appropriateness were not dependent upon harassment type. Further, organizational responses that involved transferring or reassigning victims were not viewed as less severe punishment for perpetrators than were most responses that involved the perpetrator directly.     

Everyday Victimization of Adolescent Girls by Boys: Sexual Harassment, Bullying or Aggression?

School-based sexual harassment of adolescent girls by boys appears commonplace, yet aggression and bullying studies rarely yield sexualized material. This qualitative Australian study with 72 14- to 15-year-olds and 7 teachers aimed to discover whether interviewer use of neutral language in gender-segregated focus groups and interviews would yield material indicating that the victimization of girls by boys is sexualized. Verbal and indirect victimization were reported to be everyday occurrences, and almost entirely sexual. Findings are discussed in the light of definitions of sexual harassment, bullying and aggression. It is concluded that the term “sexual bullying” appropriately captures the gendered power structure underlying these behaviors. As such, they need to be understood, and become visible, more broadly than in terms of individual pathology.     

The Effects of Subtle Sexual Harassment on Women’s Performance in a Job Interview

Although we now know about the long-term consequences of moderate to severe sexual harassment, little is known about the immediate effects of more subtle harassment. The present study was designed to examine real-time consequences of subtle sexual harassment in a job interview using objective indicators of job performance. Fifty women were recruited for a job interview. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two interview conditions during which they were asked either three sexual or non-sexual questions interspersed with standard interview questions. In the former, women applicants spoke less fluently, gave lower quality answers, and asked fewer job relevant questions than did those in the non-sexual interview. It thus appears that even relatively mild harassment disrupts immediate performance.     

High School Girls’ Experience of Victimization by Boys: Where Sexual Harassment Meets Aggression

School-based research into sexual harassment, on the one hand, and aggression (including bullying) on the other, originate from different disciplinary traditions, but are beginning to connect. We examined whether the sexual harassment of high school girls by boys can be regarded as a form of aggression. Year 8 to 10 girls from 5 coeducational high schools (N = 679) responded to a 24-item version of the Direct and Indirect Aggression Scale, including 6 new sexually toned items; participants indicated how often they experienced each behavior. Principal components analysis identified 4 components: direct aggression, psychological aggression, cyberbullying, and sexual harassment. The latter included the more intrusive sexually toned behaviors, whereas verbal sexualized insults were a component of psychological aggression—the component that most strongly undermined girls’ sense of safety at school. Research and policies on school peer victimization need to explicitly include sexual aspects, in recognition of the harmfulness of such “everyday” psychological aggression.