School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Research Publications

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Gender system justification predicts decreased blame towards perpetrators of sexual harassment

Weaving, M ; Fine, C (University of Melbourne, 2020)

Sexual harassment is a pervasive social problem with serious physical and psychological repercussions. Whilst the #MeToo movement has shone a spotlight on the issue, public reactions to perpetrators remain divided. Building on system justification theory, we argue that this division can be explained by individual differences in the desire to safeguard the gender hierarchy. To investigate this claim, we conducted a correlational study (n = 185) to examine whether gender system justification predicts perceptions of sexual harassment as unintentional and benign, and whether this leads to decreased blame judgements towards perpetrators. Results largely supported our hypotheses: we found that individuals who are high (vs. low) on gender system justification are more likely to view sexual harassment as unintentional and harmless and are less likely to blame perpetrators. Additionally, our analyses revealed that the effect of gender system justification on blame was mediated by differing perceptions of harm, but not intent. These results suggest that the exoneration of perpetrators may be motivated by a desire to maintain the status quo of gender relations, and that this motivation may result in the interpretation of evidence in a manner that favours exculpating perpetrators.