Individual Differences in Perception of Sexual Harassment in University Students
Sexual harassment has increasingly become a main topic of conversation in academia in recent years. This current study investigated the role of gender, gender identity, locus of control and social dominance orientation on perceptions of sexual harassment. 121 undergraduate students (60 females and 61 males) were presented with four questionnaires. A hierarchical multiple regression and mediation analyses were conducted to examine the data. Results indicated that women perceived a higher occurrence of sexually harassing behaviour than men. Gender identity and locus of control were not found to be significant predictors of perception of sexual harassment. Mediation analyses showed that there was a significant direct effect of social dominance orientation on the perception of sexual harassment with individuals who measured high in social dominance orientation interpreting less scenarios as sexually harassing while those exhibiting low social dominance orientation were more likely to perceive sexual harassment. With limited previous research identifying the role of social dominance orientation in the perception of sexual harassment, future studies should further examine this individual difference in a range of settings including workplace and third level education. Limitations of this study and recommendations for future research is outlined.