Good intentions aren't good enough: Moral courage in opposing sexual harassment

• Observers of sexual harassment intend to report incidents at much higher rates than they actually do. Women, however, are more likely to report observing sexual harassment than men.

  • In Study 1, 64% of participants selected 5,6, or 7 on the scale when asked if they intended to engage in reporting behavior, with 1 representing "not at all" and 7 representing "very much."  

  • Only 20% of those who expressed such intentions confronted the harasser during the team exercise, 26% reported the harassment in the first opportunity to comment on the exercise, and 49% reported the harassment when directly asked if a demeaning or derogatory remark had been made. 

  • In Study 2, 66% of participants said they had intentions to report online sexual harassment. Only 26% of those who expressed such intentions confronted the harasser during the team exercise, 39% reported the harassment in the first opportunity to comment on the exercise, and 73% reported the harassment when directly asked if a demeaning or derogatory remark had been made.

• Providing multiple opportunities to report sexual harassment increased the number of participants who reported sexual harassment. 

  • In Study 1, 25% of participants reported the harassment at the first opportunity to comment generally on the team exercise, while 53% reported it during a later, more direct opportunity to report.  

  • In Study 2, 33% of participants reported the harassment at the first opportunity to comment generally on the team exercise, while 66% reported it during a later, more direct opportunity to report.

• Female observers were more likely to report, but not to confront, sexual harassment than male observers. 

• Moral courage and narcissism were the most consistent unique predictors of whether or not an observer would combat sexual harassment (through confronting or reporting it). 

  • Observers with moral courage were more likely to oppose sexual harassment. 

  • Observers with narcissism characteristics were less likely to oppose sexual harassment.

• In Study 2, observers with agreeableness characteristics were more likely to report, but not confront, sexual harassment. Observers concerned with fairness were more likely to both report and confront sexual harassment. Observers concerned with loyalty were less likely to both report and confront sexual harassment.   

These results reveal promising directions for identifying ways to increase reporting of sexual harassment in the workplace. They suggest that providing multiple and varied opportunities to report sexual harassment may lead to increased observer reporting. More research may be needed to understand how to increase male observers' opposition to sexual harassment specifically.  

Study 1 involved 118 people recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk) and compensated for their participation. Participants were asked to read a series of decision-making scenarios, one of which described the protagonist reporting sexual harassment in the workplace. Afterwards, they were asked the extent to which they intended to engage in comparable reporting behavior, knowing that there might be negative consequences for the perpetrator (1 = not at all, 7 = very much). Participants then completed a series of questions assessing the individual variables of moral courage, narcissism, and moral identity, as well as filler material. (Moral courage was defined in two parts: trait moral courage, which referred to individuals' willingness to stand up for a just cause despite risks, and professional moral courage, which referred to individuals' agency, values, endurance of threats, degree of compliance, and moral goals.)

Next, participants completed an online team exercise alongside one real participant and two programmed participants. In the four-round exercise, team members introduced themselves and discussed hometowns and hobbies, vacation destinations, and favorite foods, with a sexually harassing comment embedded in one of the rounds. Participants were presented with the chance to provide comments after each round of exchanges. After all four rounds, participants were asked how pleasant the exchanges had been, how much they liked their team members, whether they had any further comments, and whether a demeaning or derogatory comment had been made during the exercise. Lastly, they were asked about their demographics and the details they remembered from the first part of the study. 

Study 2 replicated Study 1, with shifts in the recruitment process and the individual variables measured. Participants were recruited through MTurk and completed attention checks, with 247 participants ultimately selected and compensated for their participation. The procedure of Study 1 was expanded to include measures of three more individual variables: agreeableness, fairness, and loyalty.  

In their analysis, researchers examined participants' intentions and behavior (did they confront or report the perpetrator, and at what point of the exercise) in comparison to each other and in the context of the selected individual variables.