Empowerment by efficacy and eyewitnesses?: self-efficacy and bystander behaviour on non-intervening victim self-blame during acts of sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is a major problem in today’s society. It can cause psychological problems to victims. One of those problems is that victims may blame themselves for being harassed. This can eventually cause PTSD. Factors that might affect self-blame are social information and a perception of control. This study aims to determine if the perception of control can backfire if the victim is unable to stand up to the harassment. Furthermore, we try to find out if social information, conveyed by the behaviour of bystanders, can influence self-blame as well. The study sample comprised 240 women, aged 18-29. The women were divided between two self-efficacy (perceived control) conditions and four different bystander behaviour conditions. Eventually we had eight different groups. The results didn’t show that self-efficacy or bystander behaviour had any significant effect on self-blame. In our exploratory analysis we did find significant effects on sexual harassment myth acceptation. Those...Show moreSexual harassment is a major problem in today’s society. It can cause psychological problems to victims. One of those problems is that victims may blame themselves for being harassed. This can eventually cause PTSD. Factors that might affect self-blame are social information and a perception of control. This study aims to determine if the perception of control can backfire if the victim is unable to stand up to the harassment. Furthermore, we try to find out if social information, conveyed by the behaviour of bystanders, can influence self-blame as well. The study sample comprised 240 women, aged 18-29. The women were divided between two self-efficacy (perceived control) conditions and four different bystander behaviour conditions. Eventually we had eight different groups. The results didn’t show that self-efficacy or bystander behaviour had any significant effect on self-blame. In our exploratory analysis we did find significant effects on sexual harassment myth acceptation. Those who were less likely to believe myths regarding harassment also scored lower on self-blame. This study was conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, research methods were limited. After the pandemic, new methods can be used to study the effect of self-efficacy and bystander behaviour on self-blame. Regarding myth acceptation, giving a potential victim insight in the suffering of those being harassed, may reduce self-blame during future events of harassment.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

Empowerment by efficacy and eyewitnesses? self-efficacy and bystander behaviour on non-intervening victim self-blame during acts of sexual harassment