Men and women respond differently when they witness sexual harassment in the workplace, according to a new study led by Sohee Kim, a graduate student in the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois.
Across three experiments incorporating actual experiences and hypothetical workplace sexual harassment scenarios, women respondents were more likely than male respondents to report empathy towards the victim, regardless of the gender of both the victim and the harasser. Women were also less likely to engage in “not hearing” behaviors, such as invalidating or ignoring a victim’s claims.
However, in organizations that are highly intolerant of workplace sexual harassment, the gender gap disappeared. Both men and women reported greater empathy for harassment targets, were more likely to engage in bystander intervention, and less likely to ignore claims. This suggests that training programs aimed at not just legal compliance, but also building empathy and establishing a strong intolerance for harassment can lead to safer workplace environments for everyone.
In addition to Kim, the study authors include YoungAh Park, professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois, and Yijue Liang, assistant professor of industrial and organizational psychology at George Mason University in Virginia.