the men who blamed the victim more than women showed greater empathy for the male sexual harasser.
Less straightforward cases may lead to increased empathy with the male perpetrator and greater levels of
blame towards female victims, the researchers have warned.
The findings come after the #MeToo movement prompted women across the world to share their share
their experiences of sexual harassment and its negative effects on their lives.
The academics wrote: “Accusations of in-group wrongdoing, as in the case of a man’s sexual harassment of a
woman, may pose a threat to men’s sense of their gender group as moral. To reduce this threat, men may
afford male perpetrators the benefit of the doubt and interpret events in a way that is biased towards that
perpetrator’s perspective.”
They added that men may believe that the male perpetrator did not mean to cause harm, that what occurred
was based on a misunderstanding, or that the allegations are false accounts.
The paper, published in the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly, said a fear of being blamed contributes
to low rates of reporting of sexual harassment among women. “Despite movements such as #MeToo,
women still fear negative consequences of making a sexual harassment complaint. Many women encounter
victim-blaming attitudes when they do, especially from men,” said Dr Renata Bongiorno, who led the
research.
Challenging myths that women provoke sexual harassment from men, or are often dishonest about their
experiences, could help reduce empathy for male offenders, the researchers argue. The paper calls on
organisations to implement training to ensure decision makers are made aware of potential bias and trained
to not be unduly influenced by their empathy for the perpetrator.
Dr Bongiorno added: “It is widely assumed that a lack of empathy for female victims explains why people
blame them, but we actually found that empathy for the male sexual harasser was a more consistent
explanation of variability in victim blame. To improve responding, everyone, but especially men, should be
mindful that their empathy for a male sexual harasser can increase their likelihood of blaming women for
being sexually harassed.”