(Mis)Matching Expectations: The Effects of Claimant Gender Identity and Harassment Form on Perceptions of Sexual Harassment Claims

Abstract

Laypeople often assume a typical sexual harassment incident involves a cisgender man directing sexual advances toward a cisgender woman. Alternatively, when people learn that a transgender woman was sexually harassed, they tend to assume she experienced gender harassment. How are harassment claims that do not match these expectations evaluated? In two preregistered studies, participants (N = 630 and 638) read a social media post from a transgender or assumed cisgender woman who experienced unwanted sexual attention or gender harassment at work. Regardless of harassment form, transgender (vs. assumed cisgender) women were more likely to be rated as complainers and as overreacting (Studies 1 and 2) and elicited less empathy (Study 2). Additionally, participants in both studies were less likely to label gender harassment (vs. unwanted sexual attention) as sexual harassment. How sexual harassment claims are evaluated may have serious consequences for the (lack of) support claimants receive when speaking up about harassment.