Sexual Harassment Victims Often Subject to Condemnation
Persons, who are subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace, may also be subjected to condemnation from others, who believe that they would be much more confrontational if they were in a similar experience. An interesting new study provides interesting clues to California sexual harassment lawyers on how people react when confronted with sexual harassment.
The study conducted by researchers at the University of Notre Dame finds that when most people are confronted with sexual harassment, they simply do not stand up for themselves as strongly as they predict they will. Because they are unable to stand up for themselves as strongly as they believe they would have had, they are much more willing to condemn passive victims of sexual harassment.
The study is titled Doubled Victimization in the Workplace: Why Observers Condemn Passive Victims of Sexual Harassment. In the study, the researchers offer the theory that many victims of sexual harassment are simply not able to confront the harassment of the harasser as strongly as they believe they will. However, these same people are much more likely to be very condemning of other passive victims of sexual harassment, who do not stand up for themselves.
As part of the research, the researchers conducted several studies. In the first 2 studies, participants insisted that they would be much more confrontational in the face of sexual harassment than passive victims. The researchers found that this kind of attitude typically leads to condemnation and judgment of other passive victims. That kind of condemnation could include a failure to work with the victims of sexual harassment.
In the rest of the studies, the researchers identified the failure to understand what might possibly lead victims to become passive in the face of sexual harassment, and aimed at reducing condemnation of passive victims of sexual harassment.
