Political Orientation and Attitudes Toward Sexual Harassment: The Moderating Role of Gender

Abstract

Sexual harassment (SH) refers to unwelcome behavior that creates a hostile, intimidating, or offensive environment. This behavior can manifest through physical, verbal, or nonverbal actions. The present study analyzes the relationship between political orientation (left-wing, center, and right-wing) and attitudes toward SH with a focus on the moderating role of gender. We examined two types of attitudes: SH myth acceptance, and rejection of sexist remarks, specifically piropos. SH myths are widely held but false beliefs that serve to deny and justify male-perpetrated harassment of women. Piropos are a form of harassment prevalent in Spain, where strangers make unsolicited comments about a woman’s appearance in public spaces. Data were collected at a Spanish university, and multiple regression analyses were performed ( N = 303). Participants with left-wing political orientation showed significantly lower SH myth acceptance compared to both right-wing (β = .80, p < .001) and center-oriented participants (β = .51, p < .01). Similarly, left-wing participants showed significantly higher rejection of piropos compared to right-wing (β = −1.26, p < .001) and center-oriented participants (β = −.80, p < .01). Furthermore, the interaction between political orientation and gender revealed that men with right-wing political orientation showed higher SH myth acceptance (β = −.51, p < .05) and lower rejection of piropos (β = .96, p < .05) compared to women of the same political orientation.