480 Chapter 12to asambient sexual harassment(Glomb et al.,
1997). Witnesses realize that they work in a
culture in which they are neither supported
nor protected from sexual harassment.
There is no indication that reporting
sexual harassment leads to better outcomes
(Bergman et al., 2002). The outcome depends
on the organization’s response, and a typical
response is retaliation of some sort. Retalia-
tion and minimization of sexual harassment
lead to lower job satisfaction.
Most research on the outcomes of sexual
harassment come from survey studies. The
problem with survey studies is that both the
independent variable (sexual harassment) and
the dependent variable (distress) rely on self-
report. Laboratory studies in which sexual
harassment is manipulated can provide more
definitive evidence of its effects. One such
study showed that sexual harassment dur-
ing the interview process impaired women’s
performance (Woodzicka & LaFrance, 2005).
Young adult females were interviewed for a
job by a male and randomly assigned to re-
ceive one of two sets of interviewer questions.
Both sets of questions were out of the ordi-
nary (to control for the surprise element of
the questions), but only one set of questions
could be construed as sexual harassment. For
example, in the control condition, women
were asked if they had a best friend and if they
thought it was important for people to believe
in God. Like the previous study, in the sexual
harassment condition, women were asked if
they had a boyfriend and if they thought it was
important for women to wear a bra to work.
The interview was videotaped and transcribed
and rated by coders who were blind to condi-
tion. Women in the sexual harassment con-
dition spoke less fluently, gave lower-quality
answers to questions, and asked fewer relevant
questions during the interview than women in
the control condition. Interestingly, women’sInterestingly, people seem to be harsher
in judging male compared to female victims.
Male victims are less likely to be believed, are
liked less, and punished more compared to
female victims (Madera et al., 2007). Female
victims are liked more than male victims—
especially if they are attractive.Outcomes of Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is associated with nega-
tive job outcomes, increased psychological
distress, and poorer physical health (Chan et
al., 2008; Stockdale & Bhattacharya, 2009).
In terms of work quality, people who are
harassed are unhappy with their jobs, have
more difficulty performing their jobs, and
are less committed to their jobs. People who
are harassed may quit their jobs, be fired, or
lose career opportunities. Among college stu-
dents, sexual harassment has been related to
academic disengagement and poor academic
performance (Huerta et al., 2006). Health out-
comes range from psychological distress, such
as loss of self-esteem, anxiety, and depression,
to physical symptoms, such as headaches and
gastrointestinal problems, and even eating
disturbances. Sexual harassment also may af-
fect people’s ability to trust others. People
who are harassed may withdraw from social
interactions. The links to outcomes are gen-
erally the same for women and men. How-
ever, there are fewer studies of harassment
among men, leaving open the possibility that
there could be sex differences in the rela-
tion of harassment to health and well-being.
Sexual harassment is more strongly related
to poor outcomes among younger than older
people. The more frequent and the more se-
vere the harassment, the more severe the
consequences (Collinsworth, Fitzgerald, &
Drasgow, 2009). There also are negative ef-
fects of witnessing sexual harassment, referredM12_HELG0185_04_SE_C12.indd 480 6/21/11 9:16 AM