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Prototypes of Victims of Workplace Harassment.

Ignazio ZianoEvan Polman
Published in: Personality & social psychology bulletin (2024)
What do people think of when they think of workplace harassment? In 13 pre-registered studies with French, British, and U.S. American adult participants ( N = 3,892), we conducted a multi-method investigation into people's social prototypes of victims of workplace harassment. We found people imagined such victims in physically, socially, psychologically, and economically different ways compared with non-victims: for example, as less attractive, more introverted, and paid less. In addition, we found ambiguous harassment leveled against a prototypical (vs. non-prototypical) victim was more likely to be classified as harassment, and perceived to cause the victim more psychological pain. As such, both lay-people and professionals wanted to punish harassers of victims who "fit the prototype" more. Notably, providing people with instructions to ignore a victim's personal description and instead assess the harassment behavior did not reduce the prototype effect.
Keyphrases
  • intimate partner violence
  • mental health
  • chronic pain
  • healthcare
  • depressive symptoms
  • physical activity
  • social support
  • pain management
  • young adults