Effects of Employment Relationship,Response of Recipient and Sex of Rater on Perceptions of Sexual Harassment

The effects of the employment relationship (superior vs coworker), recipient's response (positive vs negative), and sex of the rater (male vs female) on perceptions of sexual harassment, appropriateness of the initiator's behavior, and appropriateness of the recipient's behavior were investigated. Subjects were 82 female and 76 male undergraduate students. The results of a 2 × 2 × 2 multivariate analysis of variance indicated main effects for response of the recipient and sex of the rater. Univariate analyses indicated that women rated the initiator less favorably than men, that men perceived the situation as more harassing and approved of the recipient more than women when the recipient's responses were positive, although there was no difference between men and women when the recipient's responses were negative.