Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Victim Resistance: Theory and Data on Understanding Perceptions of Sexual Harassment

  • Published:
Sex Roles Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article reports on a study of perceptions of sexual harassment when a victim offers verbal resistance, and introduces the theoretical application of the notion that women sometimes use token resistance to sexual attention. Perceptions of sexual harassment were examined based on a vignette in which physical or verbal harassment and victim's facial expression were varied. Participants were 337 undergraduates (91% European American, 5% African American, 1% Hispanic American, 1% Asian American). Perceptions of sexual harassment were stronger for physical harassment than verbal harassment, except when the target smiled. Overall, women had stronger perceptions of harassment than did men. Also, a stronger belief in women's use of token resistance to sex was associated with weaker perceptions of sexual harassment. These findings suggest that a number of factors influence perceptions of harassment, even when a victim verbally resists.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

references

  • Abbey, A., & Melby, C. (1986). The effects of nonverbal cues on gender differences in perceptions of sexual intent. Sex Roles, 15, 283-298.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baird, C. L., Bensko, N. L., Bell, P. A., Viney, W., & Woody, W. D. (1995). Gender influence on perceptions of hostile environment sexual harassment. Psychological Reports, 77, 79-82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, D. D., Terpstra, D. E., & Larntz, K. (1990). The influence of individual characteristics and severity of harassing behavior on reactions to sexual harassment. Sex Roles, 22, 305-325.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartling, C. A., & Eisenman, R. (1993). Sexual harassment proclivities in men and women. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 31, 189-192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Begany, J. J., & Milburn, M. A. (2002). Psychological predictors of sexual harassment: Authoritarianism, hostile sexism, and rape myths. Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 3, 119-126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bingham, S. G., & Scherer, L. L. (1993). Factors associated with responses to sexual harassment and satisfaction with outcome. Sex Roles, 29, 239-269.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blakely, G. L., Blakely, E. H., & Moorman, R. H. (1995). The relationship between gender, personal experience, and perceptions of sexual harassment in the workplace. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 8, 263-274.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blumenthal, J. A. (1998). The reasonable woman standard: A meta-analytic review of gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment. Law and Human Behavior, 22, 33-57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burgeas, D., & Borgida, E. (1997). Sexual harassment: An experimental test of the sex-role spillover theory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 63-75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burian, B. K., Yanico, B. J., & Martinez, C. R. (1998). Group gender composition effects on judgments of sexual harassment. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22, 465-480.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cassidy, L., & Hurrell, R. M. (1995). The influence of victim's attire on adolescents' judgments of date rape. Adolescence, 30, 319-323.

    Google Scholar 

  • Check, J. V. P., & Malamuth, N. M. (1983). Sex role stereotyping and reactions to depictions of stranger vs. acquaintance rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 344-356.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cochran, C. C., Frazier, P. A., & Olson, A. M. (1997). Predictors of responses to unwanted sexual attention. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 207-226.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cowan, G. (2000). Women's hostility toward women and rape and sexual harassment myths. Violence Against Women, 6, 238-246.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Judicibus, M., & McCabe, M. P. (2001). Blaming the target of sexual harassment: Impact of gender role, sexist attitudes, and work role. Sex Roles, 44, 401-417.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, S., Barak, A., & Pinto, A. (1991). Moderating effects of personal cognitions on experienced and perceived sexual harassment of women at the workplace. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 21, 1320-1337.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald, L. F., Drasgow, F., Hulin, C. L., Gelfand, M. J., & Magley, V. J. (1997). Antecedents and consequences of sexual harassment in organizations: A test of an integrated model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 578-589.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald, L. F., Gelfand, M. J., & Drasgow, F. (1995). Measuring sexual harassment: Theoretical and psychometric advances. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 17, 425-445.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald, L., Shullman, S. L., Bailey, N., Richards, M., Swecker, J., Gold, Y., et al.(1988). The incidence and dimensions of sexual harassment in academia and the workplace. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 32, 152-175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frazier, P. A., Cochran, C. C., & Olson, A. M. (1995). Social science research on lay definitions of sexual harassment. Journal of Social Issues, 51, 21-37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gelfand, M. J., Fitzgerald, L. F., & Drasgow, F. (1995). The structure of sexual harassment: A confirmatory analysis across cultures and settings. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 47, 164-177.

    Google Scholar 

  • Groth, A. N. (1979). Men who rape: The psychology of the offender. New York: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gruber, J. E., & Bjorn, L. (1982). Blue-collar blues: The sexual harassment of women autoworkers. Work and Occupations, 9, 271-298.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gruber, J. E., & Smith, M. D. (1995). Women's responses to sexual harassment: A multivariate analysis. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 17, 543-562.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutek, B. A. (1995). How subjective is sexual harassment? An examination of rater effects. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 17, 447-467.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutek, B. A., & Koss, M. P. (1993). Changed women and changed organizations: Consequences of and coping with sexual harassment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 42, 28-48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hendrix, W. H., Rueb, J. D., & Steel, R. P. (1998). Sexual harassment and gender differences. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 13, 235-252.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry, J., & Meltzoff, J. (1998). Perceptions of sexual harassment as a function of target's response type and observer's sex. Sex Roles, 39, 253-271.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, C., & McClelland, K. (1991). Honoring accounts for sexual harassment: A factorial survey analysis. Sex Roles, 24, 725-751.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, J. D., Benson, C., Teasdale, A., Simmons, S., & Reed, W. (1997). Perceptual ambiguity, gender, target intoxication: Assessing the effects of factors that moderate perceptions of sexual harassment. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 27, 1209-1221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, C. B., Stockdale, M. S., & Saal, F. E. (1991). Persistence of men's misperceptions of friendly cues across a variety of interpersonal encounters. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 15, 463-475.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, T. S., & Remland, M. S. (1992). Sources of variability in perceptions of and responses to sexual harassment. Sex Roles, 27, 121-142.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, T. S., Remland, M. S., & Brunner, C. C. (1987). Effects of employment relationship, response of recipient and sex of rater on perceptions of sexual harassment. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 65, 55-63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keyton, J., & Rhodes, S. C. (1999). Organizational sexual harassment: Translating research into application. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 27, 158-173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirk, R. E. (1995). Experimental design procedures for the behavioral sciences. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loredo, C., Reid, A., & Deaux, K. (1995). Judgments and definitions of sexual harassment by high school students. Sex Roles, 32, 29-45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Magley, V. J., Hulin, C. L., Fitzgerald, L. F., & DeNardo, M. (1999). Outcomes of self-labeling sexual harassment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 390-402.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills, C. S., & Granoff, B. J. (1992). Date and acquaintance rape among a sample of college students. Journal of the National Association of Social Workers, 37, 504-509.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muehlenhard, C. L. (1988). “Nice women” don't say yes and “real men” don't say no: How miscommunication and the double standard can cause sexual problems. Women and Therapy, 7, 95-108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muehlenhard, C. L., & Felts, A. S. (1998). Sexual Beliefs Scale. In C. M. Davis, W. L. Yarber, R. Bauserman, G. Shreer, & S. L. Davis (Eds.), Handbook of sexuality-related measures (pp. 116-118). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muehlenhard, C. L., & Hollabaugh, L. C. (1988). Do women sometimes say no when they mean yes? The prevalence and correlates of women's token resistance to sex. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 872-879.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muehlenhard, C. L., & Rodgers, C. S. (1998). Token resistance to sex: New perspectives on an old stereotype. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22, 443-463.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Donohue, W., Downs, K., & Yeater, E. A. (1998). Sexual harassment: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 3, 111-128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Osman, S. L. (1998). The Token Resistance to Sex Scale. In C. M. Davis, W. L. Yarber, R. Bauserman, G. Shreer, & S. L. Davis (Eds.), Handbook of sexuality-related measures (pp. 567-568). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Osman, S. L. (2003). Predicting men's rape perceptions based on the belief that “no” really means “yes.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 683-692.

    Google Scholar 

  • Osman, S. L., & Davis, C. L. (1997). Predicting men's perceptions of date rape using the heuristic systematic model. Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, 22, 25-32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Osman, S. L., & Davis, C. M. (1999). Belief in token resistance and type of resistance as predictor's of men's perceptions of date rape. Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, 24, 189-196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry, E. L., Kulik, C. T., & Schmidtke, J. M. (1997). Blowing the whistle: Determinants of responses to sexual harassment. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 19, 457-482.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popovich, P. M., Jolton, J. A., Mastrangelo, P. M., Everton, W. J., Somers, J. M., & Gehlauf, D. N. (1995). Sexual harassment scripts: A means to understanding a phenomenon. Sex Roles, 32, 315-335.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pryor, J. B. (1987). Sexual harassment proclivities in men. Sex Roles, 17, 269-290.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pryor, J. B. (1995). The phenomenology of sexual harassment: Why does sexual behavior bother people in the workplace? Consulting Psychology Journal, 47, 160-168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pryor, J. B., Giedd, J. L., & Williams, K. B. (1995). A social psychological model for predicting sexual harassment. Journal of Social Issues, 51, 69-84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pryor, J. B., LaVite, C. M., & Stoller, L. M. (1993). A social psychological analysis of sexual harassment: The person/situation interaction. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 42, 68-83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Regan, P. C. (1997). The impact of male sexual request style on perceptions of sexual interactions: The mediational role of beliefs about female sexual desire. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 19, 519-532.

    Google Scholar 

  • Remland, M. S., & Jones, T. S. (1985). Sex differences, communication consistency, and judgments of sexual harassment in a performance appraisal interview. Southern Speech Communication Journal, 50, 156-176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rotundo, M., Nguyen, D. H., & Sackett, P. R. (2001). A meta-analytic review of gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 914-922.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saal, F. E., Johnson, C. B., & Weber, N. (1989). Friendly or sexy? It may depend on whom you ask. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 13, 163-276.

    Google Scholar 

  • Satterfield, A. T., & Muehlenhard, C. L. (1997). Shaken confidence: The effects of an authority figure's flirtatiousness on women and men's self-rated creativity. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 395-416.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, K. T., Swan, S., & Fitzgerald, L. F. (1997). Job-related and psychological effects of sexual harassment in the workplace: Empirical evidence from two organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 401-415.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheffey, S., & Tindale, R. S. (1992). Perceptions of sexual harassment in the workplace. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22, 1502-1520.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shotland, R. L., & Craig, J. M. (1988). Can men and women differentiate between friendly and sexual interested behavior? Social Psychology Quarterly, 51, 66-73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shotland, R. L., & Goodstein, L. (1983). Just because she doesn't want to doesn't mean it's rape: An experimentally based causal model of the perception of rape in a dating situation. Social Psychology Quarterly, 46, 220-232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soloman, D. H., & Williams, M. M. (1997). Perceptions of social-sexual communication at work: The effects of message, situation, and observer characteristics on judgments of sexual harassment. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 25, 196-216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stockdale, M. S. (1993). The role of sexual misperceptions of women's friendliness in an emerging theory of sexual harassment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 42, 84-101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stockdale, M. S. (1998). The direct and moderating influences of sexual-harassment pervasiveness, coping strategies, and gender on work-related outcomes. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22, 521-535.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stockdale, M. S., & Vaux, A. (1993). What sexual harassment experiences lead respondents to acknowledge being sexually harassed? A secondary analysis of a university survey. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 43, 221-234.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tata, J. (1993). The structure and phenomenon of sexual harassment: Impact of category of sexually harassing behavior, gender, and hierarchical level. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 23, 199-211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Terpstra, D. E., & Baker, D. D. (1987). A hierarchy of sexual harassment. Journal of Psychology, 12, 599-605.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thacker, R. A. (1996). A descriptive study of situational and individual influences upon individuals' responses to sexual harassment. Human Relations, 49, 1105-1122.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomann, D. A., & Wiener, R. L. (1987). Physical and psychological causality as determinants of culpability in sexual harassment cases. Sex Roles, 17, 573-591.

    Google Scholar 

  • U. S. Merit Systems Protection Board (USMSPB). (1981). Sexual harassment of federal workers: Is it a problem? Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vogelman-Sine, S., Ervin, E., Christensen, R., Warmsun, C., & Ullman, L. (1979). Sex differences in feelings attributed to a woman in situations involving coercion and sexual advances. Journal of Personality, 47, 420-431.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wayne, J. H. (2000). Disentangling the power bases of sexual harassment: Comparing gender, age, and position power. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 57, 301-325.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber-Burdin, E., & Rossi, P. H. (1982). Defining sexual harassment on campus: A replication and extension. Journal of Social Issues, 38, 111-120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, C. W., Brown, R. S., Lees-Haley, P. R., & Price, J. R. (1995). An attributional (causal dimensional) analysis of perceptions of sexual harassment. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25, 1169-1183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, K. B., & Cyr, R. R. (1992). Escalating commitment to a relationship: The sexual harassment trap. Sex Roles, 27, 47-72.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Salisbury University, Salisbury, Maryland, 21801

    Suzanne L. Osman

Authors
  1. Suzanne L. Osman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Osman, S.L. Victim Resistance: Theory and Data on Understanding Perceptions of Sexual Harassment. Sex Roles 50, 267–275 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SERS.0000015557.00936.30

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SERS.0000015557.00936.30

Search

Navigation