Project Director

Osborn, Hannah

Department Examiner

Zelin, Alexandra

Department

Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

The current research examines the perceptions of sexual harassment based on the influence of the victim’s gender, and the race of both the victim and the perpetrator, and perceiver’s feminist beliefs. By using vignettes (a brief description of an event), we manipulated a) the gender of the victim (man or woman), b) the race of the victim (POC or white), and c) the race of the perpetrator (POC or white). Our hypotheses were as follows: a) vignettes depicting same-sex harassment will be less in line with the definition of sexual harassment; b) vignettes portraying the victim as a woman of color will be deemed as less problematic than white victims displayed in the vignettes, and c) in vignettes portraying the perpetrator as a black man, the participant will more likely consider the situation as sexual harassment. After responding to the vignettes, the participants completed scales measuring feminist identification, rape myth acceptance, and homophobic beliefs. Unfortunately, the present study did not support any evidence for the combined influence of perpetrator race, and victim gender and race, on perceptions of sexual harassment scenarios. Nevertheless, the present findings suggest feminist identification may play a role in how people perceive sexual harassment scenarios.

Degree

B. A.; An honors thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Date

12-2021

Subject

Attitude (Psychology); Minorities; Sexual harassment

Keyword

feminism; Gender; Perceptions of sexual harassment; Race; Sexuality

Discipline

Comparative Psychology | Experimental Analysis of Behavior

Document Type

Theses

Extent

20 leaves

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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