Perspective Taking, Gender, and Legal Instructions in a Sexual Harassment Case

We examined the roles of legal standards, perspective taking, and gender on sexual harassment judgments. Two-hundred and seventy-three undergraduates were randomly assigned to instruction and timing conditions in a 2 (participant sex) × 4 (legal standard/perspective-taking instruction) × 2 (timing o...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of forensic psychology practice Vol. 13; no. 3; pp. 171 - 191
Main Authors Zimmerman, David M., Myers, Bryan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Binghamton, NY Routledge 01.05.2013
Haworth Press
Subjects
Applied psychology
Biological and medical sciences
decision making
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
gender differences
Miscellaneous
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
sexual harassment
United States
North America
America
Human
Justice
Sexual harassment
Decision making
Legislation
Sex
Gender
Instruction
gender differences
Judgment
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:We examined the roles of legal standards, perspective taking, and gender on sexual harassment judgments. Two-hundred and seventy-three undergraduates were randomly assigned to instruction and timing conditions in a 2 (participant sex) × 4 (legal standard/perspective-taking instruction) × 2 (timing of instructions) between-subjects factorial design. Perspective taking predicted verdicts and harassment ratings. Women more frequently found in favor of the female plaintiff than men, and these sex differences were mediated by perspective taking. Participants given instructions on reasonableness were less likely to find in favor of the plaintiff than those given no instructions on reasonableness, and timing of instructions impacted verdicts.
ISSN:1522-8932
1522-9092
DOI:10.1080/15228932.2013.792609