dc.contributor.author | Bongiorno, R | |
dc.contributor.author | Langbroek, C | |
dc.contributor.author | Bain, P | |
dc.contributor.author | Ting, M | |
dc.contributor.author | Ryan, MK | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2019-07-23T13:00:49Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2019-08-18 | |
dc.description.abstract | The #MeToo movement has highlighted the widespread problem of men’s sexual harassment
of women. Women are typically reluctant to make a sexual-harassment complaint and often
encounter victim-blaming attitudes when they do, especially from men. Informed by the
social identity perspective, two experiments examined the influence of empathy—both for
women who are sexually harassed and for male harassers—on men’s and women’s
propensity to blame victims. In Study 1, university students (N = 97) responded to a vignette
describing a male student’s harassment of a female student. Men blamed the victim more
than women, which was explained by their greater empathy for the male perpetrator but not
lesser empathy for the female victim. Using the same vignette, Study 2 asked university
students (N = 135) to take either the male perpetrator’s or the female victim’s perspective.
Regardless of participant gender, participants who took the male-perpetrator’s perspective
versus the female-victim’s perspective reported greater victim blame, and this was explained
by their greater empathy for the male perpetrator and lesser empathy for the female victim.
Together, the findings provide evidence to suggest that male-perpetrator empathy may be
equally or more important than female-victim empathy for explaining victim blame for sexual
harassment. Implications for social-change, including policies to limit male-perpetrator
empathy when processing women’s sexual-harassment complaints in organizational settings,
are discussed. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | European Research Council | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | Published online 18 August 2019 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1177/0361684319868730 | |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | 725128 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/38090 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | SAGE Publications | en_GB |
dc.rights | © The Author(s) 2019. | |
dc.subject | empathy | en_GB |
dc.subject | victim blame | en_GB |
dc.subject | sexual harassment | en_GB |
dc.title | Why Women are Blamed for Being Sexually Harassed: The Effects of Empathy for Female Victims and Male Perpetrators | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.date.available | 2019-07-23T13:00:49Z | |
dc.description | This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this record. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.eissn | 1471-6402 | |
dc.identifier.journal | Psychology of Women Quarterly | en_GB |
dc.rights.uri | http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved | en_GB |
dcterms.dateAccepted | 2019-07-23 | |
exeter.funder | ::European Commission | en_GB |
rioxxterms.version | AM | en_GB |
rioxxterms.licenseref.startdate | 2019-07-23 | |
rioxxterms.type | Journal Article/Review | en_GB |
refterms.dateFCD | 2019-07-23T10:30:46Z | |
refterms.versionFCD | AM | |
refterms.dateFOA | 2019-08-28T14:11:09Z | |
refterms.panel | A | en_GB |