Priming, Sexual Harassment Running head: PRIMING TO OVERCOME SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Priming to Overcome the Silence of Sexual Harassment Kathryn McEntee Stony Brook University

Priming, Sexual Harassment Abstract The goal of this study is to increase the amount of women who will confront sexual harassment. The experiment will consist of a job interview containing sexually harassing questions. Fifty women will be randomly assigned to one of two conditions. One group will receive a prime and the other group will not. Priming method will involve exposure to a magazine with empowering images. The results are expected to indicate that women who receive the prime will confront sexual harassment more frequently than those who did not. Chi-square analysis will confirm the relationship between group membership and responses. This study will provide insights into

womens immediate behavioral reactions. Implications can be applied to real life applications for media representations of women.

Priming, Sexual Harassment Priming to Overcome the Silence of Sexual Harassment

It doesnt matter whether you wait tables at Dennys or Hooters, fold clothes at American Apparel or Babies R US. It doesnt matter whether you choose to work for SoBe over Pepsi, sell cars at Ford or Mitsubishi, accept the job with Morgan Chase or Smith Barney, or even work for the Knicks or the Kings. All of these companies have one thing in common. They all have paid large sums of money to women in sexual harassment settlements. Sexual harassment has no boundaries. It can occur within any company throughout a variety of industries. Unfortunately, according to Terpstra and Baker (1988), only an estimated 1% of victims will actually take legal action against their harasser. Sexual harassment in the workplace can result in a many psychological and physical consequences (Chan, Lam, Chow, Cheung 2008).Women who have experienced sexual harassment report an increase in withdrawal from work, a decrease in the satisfaction rating of their coworkers, as well as an overall decrease in general psychological health (Schneider, Swan, Fitzgerald, 1997). Schnedider, Swan and Fitzgerald (1997) concluded that psychological effects of sexual harassment can inhibit the effects and symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. Headaches, gastrontemial disorders, sleep disturbance and declining health conditions have also been associated with sexual harassment (Magely, Hulin, Fiztergald & DeNardo, 1999). Sexual harassment can result in staggering consequences in the workplace. Unfortunately victims of sexual harassment frequently do not report the harassment. Many women have stated that they believe that speaking up against sexual harassment or reporting it would be useless or possibly dangerous (Gutek & Koss, 1993). Sexual harassment in the workplace can create a complicated situation for women. Gutek and Koss (1993) found that the most common reason women stated for not reporting sexual harassment was fear. In their study, women reported being

Priming, Sexual Harassment fearful of hurting their career, not being believed by coworkers and facing shame or humiliation

in the office. Women are often afraid of job related consequences when considering reporting the crime. Generally, they believe the consequences outweigh the reporting, and the women remain silent (Fitzgerald, Suhllman, Bailey, Richards, Swecker, Gold, Ormerod & Weitzman, 1988). A majority of the time women believe nothing can or will be done if they reported the crime (Gutek & Koss, 1993). For all of these reasons and more, way too many cases of sexual harassment go unreported. Women often choose to suffer in silence and endure this inappropriate behavior, rather than confront their harasser or report the incident. The way women perceive and label the situation and actions of the offender may also contribute to this keeping mum mentality. Women do not label the incident as sexual harassment. In Magley, Hulin, Fitzgerald and DeNardos (1999) experiment they reported that only 20-30% of the harassed women actually labeled their experiences as sexual harassment and the majority did not. Many studies have proven that women fail to label sexual harassment. Even in extreme cases, such as rape, women still do not identify with being a victim and will not label themselves as such. Many of these cases also go unreported (Koss, 1985). In Koss (1985) experiment, 43% of women whose experiences qualify for the legal definition of rape, do not identify or label their experiences as rape, and only 4% were reported to the police. Gutek and Koss (1993) explained how harassment is not a one-time thing. Harassment commonly continues and changes with time, increasing in the intensity and frequency of the harassment. How one responds to sexual harassment will affect the overall outcome for the victim (Fitzgerald, Gelfand, Drasgow, 1995). The progression of the harassment depends on the responses from of the victim (Gutek & Koss, 1993). Dealing with sexual harassment immediately can decrease the chances of reoccurrence and can help women avoid further

Priming, Sexual Harassment harassment. Generally speaking, dealing with the first occurrence of sexual harassment can stop the harassment from continuing, and even evolving into assault or rape. The very second

harassment occurs it begins to grow in severity (Gutek & Koss, 1993). Even the most subtle acts of sexual harassment can be the beginning of a cycle that leads to an extremely uncomfortable work environment, or worse. Unfortunately, these cycles are constantly beginning. Largely due to the fact that, women dont respond or speak up against subtle sexual harassment as they imagined they would (Woodzicka and LaFrance, 2001). Woodzicka and LaFrance (2005) explored how women respond to subtle sexism. In their experiment they found that women do not act as they had imagined when confronted by sexually harassing questions during a job interview. In general, women who were asked to imagine a sexually harassing situation predicted that they would react against the harassment. They stated that they would, confront the harasser, report the incident, or leave the interview. In fact 62% anticipated that they would ask why the question was asked or tell the interviewer that the question was not appropriate. 28% believed they would either leave the interview or rudely confront the male interviewer. Instead, findings from the real situation showed that the majority of women, 52%, ignored the harassment, while 36% politely asked why the question was asked and 20% refocused the question. When placed in a real life situation, no one told the interviewer off, confronted the interviewer, or left the interview. (Woodzicka and LaFrance, 2001). Perhaps these women didnt recognize the situation as harassing or didnt label it for what it was and therefore didnt react the way they had predicted. Verbally cueing women with the term sexual harassment, has been proven to increase the amount of women that label the behavior as sexual harassment (Jascik and Fretz, 1991). Implications of the same study suggest that women are not as likely to label sexual harassment as

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harassment when receiving no cue. Out of sixty women who participated in this experiment, only two labeled it as sexual harassment. When asked directly if sexual harassment had occurred, 59 of that 60 reported that it did. In real life there are no cues, and it seems that women will continue to remain silent. Since verbal cues have proven to be effective, in increasing womens responses to sexual harassment, we can also explore these findings with the use of priming. Magley and Shupe (2005) stated that cognition can also be influenced by the use of contextual cues. It has been found that, cues imbedded in the environment can affect the way women perceive and label their experiences. The use of priming has also been proven to be effective in influencing a participants response. Roberts and Gettman (2004) explored the negative effects of priming. Their results showed that subtle exposure to words that objectify women on magazine covers, negatively affected the womens attitudes towards themselves as well as their emotional experiences. Using a more positive aspect of priming should therefore positively influence the way women respond. This study will involve exposing women to a magazine full of empowering words and images, as well as true life stories from women who have overcome their harassment. These empowered images should trigger the participants own experiences and knowledge about sexual harassment and put this topic into their thoughts. When actually confronted by it, they will be able to recognize the harassment for what it is, label it, and be able to take control and respond correctly. How can we empower women to stand up to sexual harassment when directly confronted by it? Will the introduction of empowering images help women overcome the silence of sexual harassment? The purpose of this study is to explore the use of priming and its effect on womens

Priming, Sexual Harassment

responses during a sexually harassing situation. The following hypothesis will be explored in this experiment: Priming women with empowering images prior to the interview will increase the amount of women that speak up during real life situations of sexual harassment. Can we increase the number of women that confront their harasser using priming? Manipulating a womens experience prior to being interviewed may influence her responses and reactions during the harassing interview. The power of priming will provide women with associations of overcoming sexual harassment, as well as, sensitize them so they are more likely to recognize the harassment in front of them. Recognizing the sexual harassment will enable women to then label the harassment for what it is. Identifying the situation correctly will help women acknowledge what to do next. I expect that the women who have been primed will be more inclined to, not answer the question, confront the harasser, or leave the interview, than women who have not been primed. The previous research, Woodzicka and LaFrance (2001), discovered a negative trend in womens responses to sexual harassment. My study will hopefully provide a remedy to these negative results by increasing the amount of women that speak up when confronted by sexual harassment. Method Participants Fifty women (ages 18-39) will participate in this experiment. The participants will be told and under the impression that they are interviewing for a research assistant job, until the study is concluded. When learning the true nature of this experiment, all fifty women will be asked to give their consent to volunteer in this study. No compensation will be given. The research assistant job position will be published in help wanted advertisements and displayed on posters throughout the Stony Brook University campus, located on Long Island, NY. There will be no

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restrictions on race, ethnicity, religion, marital status, or the participants social economic status. Although this experiment is only interested in obtaining women as participants, sex limitations will not be included in the description of the job, and will not appear on the posters or help wanted advertisements. This will be done in order to avoid the suspicion that could be created by only recruiting women applicants. Women, as well as men, will call the number appearing on the advertisements and posters to schedule an interview for the research assistant position. At this point the men will receive an explanation of the experiment and will be discarded. Women will be accepted and will go on to schedule their interviews, still under the impression that they are applying for a job. Materials. Interviewers. Three men will be recruited and trained as interviewers. The interviewers will be recruited from an off-campus location in order to insure that the participants do not personally know their interviewer (Woodzicka & LaFrance, 2001). The three men will be similar in physical appearance and will be around the same age (in their 30s). The three interviewers will also be dressed alike. Their outfits will consist of a pair of dress pants, a dress shirt and a plain sweater (Woodzicka & LaFrance, 2001). The interviewers will all be given the same training and instructions on how to conduct the interviews. This is done in order to keep the interviewer condition constant and the interviewers behavior as similar as possible for all participants. All participants in the study will experience the same interview, regardless of which interviewer conducted their interview. Interviewers will receive directions on how to ask the questions will be as well as instructions on how to interact with the participants. The interviewers will be informed on proper body language to exhibit during the interview, how to behavior and how to respond to

Priming, Sexual Harassment participants. They will receive instructions of how to smile, when to keep eye contact, and the

appropriate physical contact (Woodzicka & LaFrance, 2001). The only physical contact that will be experienced between the participants and the interviewers will consist of the introduction handshake only. Each interviewer will be videotaped by hidden cameras throughout the interview. The recorded interview will be checked to insure that the interviewers have conducted the interview in the correct manner. Interviews that do not follow the criteria will be discarded from the experiment entirely. Interviewers will not be aware of the cameras. They will not be told that the interview was recorded until after the study is concluded. Interviewers will also not be informed of the hypothesis of this experiment and will conduct their interviews under a blind condition. Experimenters are to be excluded from taking a double role as the interviewer, to avoid contaminating the results due to prior knowledge and participant expectations. Interview Questions. Each interview will consist of sixteen questions . Three of the questions will contain subtle sexual harassment. Woodzicka and LaFrance (2001) devised interview questions used in their experiment Real Versus Imagined Gender Harassment (2001). Provided in their article are the sexually and non-sexually harassing questions. The proposed study will use the same set of questions as previously formulated and used by Woodzicka and LaFrance (2001). As determined by Woodzicka and LaFrance (2001), the sexually harassing questions consisted of: 1. Do you have a boyfriend? 2. Do people find you desirable? 3. Do you think it is important for women to wear bras to work? The three sexually harassing questions will be spread out among the standard interview questions, consisting of a total of sixteen questions per interview (See Appendix A).

Priming, Sexual Harassment Priming Stimulus The priming method that will be used in the study will be introducing

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women to positive images and words of a magazine. The Empowered Woman Magazine will consist of empowering literature and inspiring images of women in the workplace. True life stories about overcoming sexual harassment, written by women authors, will also be featured in this magazine. Measures for Recording and Analyzing the Coded Responses of Participants All interviews will be conducted in the same room at Stony Brook University. Several hidden video cameras will be used to record each interview. The cameras will be purposely positioned in order to record several viewpoints of the participants responses as well as the interviewers behavior and the overall environment of the classroom. The participants and interviewers will not be informed of the video cameras until after the interview is conducted and the experiment is completed. The behavioral responses of the women will be recorded and analyzed using a coding process. Following in Woodzicka and LaFrances (2001) footsteps, two raters will code the verbal and behavioral responses of each women right after their interview is concluded. The coders will review each recorded interview in order to analyze and match participants behaviors and responses into the correct coded categories. Categories were previously formulated in Woodzicka and LaFrancess (2001) study with the purpose of describing the behavioral reactions of the women throughout the interview. The categories include six main responses and reactions (See Appendix B). Confronting the sexual harassment will include the following: negative counter, leaving the interview and reporting the harassment. The participants behavior will be measured and analyzed, and the results will be presented qualitatively. The two coders will also record how many women answer the questions

Priming, Sexual Harassment and how many refuse to answer. Using two coders enables the calculation of interobserver

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reliability and comparisons of coders observations, reasons, and categorizations of the womens responses will also be analyzed. Procedure Interviews will be scheduled by a female research assistant who will set up the interview times and gather the participants information. Mailing addresses will also be collected over the phone in order to mail participants forms to be completed and brought to the interview. A fake job application will be included, as well as forms that inquire about the participants personal information such as their location, education and ethnicity (Woodzicka & LaFrance, 2001). This will be a cross-sectional experiment and the interviews will take place during normal job interview times. The participants will be given directions to the pre-interview waiting room, where they will be met by a female research assistant. At this point participants will be randomly assigned into either of the two groups, Group 1: Prime or Group 2: Non-Prime. Random assignment will be allocated by the female research assistant who will use her computer to discretely access Research Randomizer Online, in order to randomly dispense participants into their group. Group 1: Prime participants will be introduced to Empowered Woman Magazine prior to their interview, while Group 2: Non-Prime will not receive the prime/magazine. The independent variable that will be manipulated is the presence of the magazine. The dependent variable that will be measured and recorded is the womens reactions and responses during the sexually harassing interview. Participants randomly selected for Group 1: Prime will be given a copy of Empowered Women Magazine by the female research assistant. After politely asking the participant to take

Priming, Sexual Harassment a seat in the waiting room, the research assistant will hand them the Empowered Women Magazine. The research assistant will inform the participant in a casual manner that the magazine is new and promoting itself with free magazines. The college had received an abundance of copies and they are now distributing them to any visitors of the college. A predesigned dialog will be written for the research assistant to rehearse, so that the experience remains a constant variable for each participant in Group 1: Prime. After the magazine conversation, talking will be limited between the participant and the research assistant. Each participant will be held twelve minutes in the waiting room until the research assistant informs them that the interviewer is available to see them. The research assistant will then walk the participants down the hall to the interview room, where they will have their job interview.

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For participants randomly assigned to Group 2: Non-Prime, no action will be taken by the research assistant in terms of the magazine. The participants will only be greeted by the research assistant and asked to have a seat in the waiting room. Group 2:Non-Prime will not receive the magazine; they will not receive the prime. After being held for the full twelve minutes in the waiting room, the research assistant will then escort them down the hall to the interview room. After the sixteen-question interview is concluded, the research assistant will lead the participants of both groups out of the interview room and back into the waiting room. At this time the participants will be told the true nature of the interview, and the experiment will be revealed to them. Participants will then be asked to give their consent to be included in the experiment. The option to be removed from the experiment will also be presented, and if they choose so, their forms and interview tapes will be destroyed. All information that will be collected and used in the experiment will remain confidential.

Priming, Sexual Harassment Results

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Of the fifty women that will participate in this experiment, through the method of random assignment, twenty-five participants will receive priming with empowering images prior to a sexually harassing interview and twenty-five will not. Priming women with empowering images will influence the amount and degree to which women stand up against sexual harassment. After analysis and coding of the participants reactions, percentages of their responses will be calculated. The sample will be examined via Chi-Square analysis for independence. Participants volunteering in this experiment, will be between 18-29 years of age, with an average age of XX years (M=XX.XX, SD =XX.XX). Location of the recruitment posters will be on a university campus, therefore a large percentage of participants will report either; being currently enrolled in college (XX %), recently graduated from college (XX %), or competed a degree prior in their life (XX %). Ethnicity of participants will display diversity within the sample. Participants will be asked to self-identify themselves as European American (XX %), African American (XX %), Asian American (XX %), Latin American (XX %), Native American (XX %) or other (XX %). Participants will also provide personal information such as marital status; participants will report either, married (XX %) or single (XX %). Percentages of the participants coded responses will be calculated and represented in categories. These percentages will exceed 100%, because participants can and will response in multiple ways, and multiple times (See Table 1). Percentages will be calculated independently for Group 1: Prime (n=XXX) responses, and for Group 2:Non-Prime (n=XX) responses. The categories to describe the behavioral reactions of the participants will be broken down and provided as percentages (See Figure 1).

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The independent and dependent variable in this experiment contain categorical data and a Chi-Square will determine the relationship between membership of group and confronting sexual harassment. Using an independent Chi-Square, the results will show that speaking up and displaying forceful responses or reactions against sexual harassment is dependent on group selection, Group 1: Prime or Group 2: Non-Prime. The relationship between group membership and participants responses to confront sexual harassment will show to be significant,
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(1, N

=50) =X.XX, p < 0.05, indicating membership to Group 1: Prime is dependent on participants responding against sexual harassment. Participants in Group 1: Prime condition will react against the sexual harassment more than participants in Group 2: Non-Prime (See Figure 2). Significant differences will be shown between groups, with Group 1: Prime having a larger effect on participants speaking out against sexual harassment. Therefore, priming women with empowering images prior to a sexually harassing interview will increase the amount of women that confront the harassment. Discussion The expected results of this study will indicate that priming women with the Empowered Women Magazine increases the amount of women that stand up to sexual harassment during a job interview. Results will show that actual responses and reactions against sexual harassment will be more frequent from the participants who received the prime than those who did not experience the prime. This finding will support the hypothesis that exposing women to positive images prior to a sexually harassing interview will increase the quantity of women who confront the sexual harassment. Woodzicka and LaFrance (2001) revealed in their study that women predicted that they would confront sexual harassment; unfortunately in reality they do the opposite. In the actual

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situation, women do not act or respond the way that they had imagined. The proposed study will expand on Woodzicka and LaFrances (2001) procedures and results. This study can also provide further insight into the immediate behavioral responses from women in a realistic situation. Confirming Woodzicka and LaFrance (2001) results, the proposed study is predicted to indicate that women do not respond against the harassment. It is expected that women who will not be exposured to the prime, will not directly confront sexual harassment. The present study will not only reconfirm Woodzicka and LaFrances (2001) study, but it will also provide a remedy. Priming women with a magazine, featuring empowering images of women in the job place, as well as true life stories about overcoming sexual harassment, increases the amount of women that confront and stand up to sexual harassment. A major strength of this study will be the method and measures used to report and record the results. In the present study, observation, via hidden video camera, will be used to capture, describe, analyze, and code the immediate responses from the participants. The use of observation will increase the external validity and impact of this experiment. Observation will allow us to evaluate a more realistic view of how women respond to sexual harassment, than the current methods that are used to research sexual harassment. Self-reported measures are currently the most common and frequent techniques that are used to study the topic of sexual harassment (Woodzicka & LaFrance, 2005). Relying mostly on survey methods, imagined scenarios, or other self-reporting accounts, provides only a limited view of the topic being studied. These methods may not be focused on, and not be able to record the immediate or natural behavioral reactions of women in a sexually harassing situation (Woodzicka & LaFrance, 2005). The focus of the proposed study will be concentrated on the immediate responses of participants and will be able to capture womens instant and genuine

Priming, Sexual Harassment responses to sexual harassment, in a realistic situation and natural environment. Self-reported measures may also carry a bias due to the reliance on participants personal recall, memory or

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description of the event. Again, the use of observation over self-reported measures increases the validity and is a major strength of this experiment. The methods used in this study, such as the coded responses categories, and use of multiple observers, are also strengths of this experiment. Using more than one observer adds strength to this study because it enables assessment of interobserver reliability. Missed or overlooked behavior will be double checked and evaluated by a different person. There may also be disagreements between the two observers which can be evaluated and compared against each other. Using the coded response categories for describing the womens responses, will also be a strength of this study. Procedures that will be used in the proposed study will be pretested and conducted, in order to minimize confounding variables. Participants will all experience the same interview in the same environment. The interview environment, interviewer and interview questions will all remain constant for each participant. This gives the study strength in that it rules out extraneous variables due to environmental stimulus. An important limitation of this study that should be noted is that the implications and results will only be valid for women from the United States. Cultural differences in other countries make this study invalid for, and should not be applied to, women outside the United States. Another limitation due to sampling procedures that will involve mainly recruiting participants from a university and surrounding area. Our participants will be predominately college students. Educated college students may be more inclined and equipped to experience the

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full nature of the prime. Also job description involving a research assistant position may attract a limited group of females. It is up to further research to explore the use of this experiment in the other areas of the job force. Perhaps the same experiment which recruits women for a K-Mart employee position or a Wall Street CEO might yield different results? By providing women with an empowering magazine we will awaken their awareness of the sexual harassment. With this in their frame of mind they are more likely to recognize and label sexual harassment when actually confronted by it. Memories, recollections and associations provoked by the prime of empowering and overcoming the assault of sexual harassment are triggered. By priming women with powerful images we are able to reverse the effects of selfobjectification. Priming women with empowering images is a relatively simple way to counteract a hazardous situation. Unfortunately the world we live in does the exact opposite. The majority of magazines today do not empower women. Instead womens bodies are objectified and sexualized in the media. Our bodies are used to sell everything from beer to toothpaste. The mass media projects women in a demeaning way while reinforcing old fashion gender roles and idealistic stereotypes. Roberts and Gettman (2004) found that subtle exposure to objectifying words, on magazine covers, results in negative consequences for women and inflicts them in a state of self-objectification. Some of these consequences include increased feelings of shame, self disgust and appearance anxiety. Roberts and Gettman (2004) attributed these increased levels of negative self views to the exposure of the prime. The objectifying words remind women and trigger thoughts, memories and feelings of the harsh cultural demands that are inflicted on them by their own culture. The unrealistic ideals that our society sets for its women are unreachable and leave women with a feeling of continuous failure to meet these unreachable standards (Fredickson & Roberts, 1997).

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Women in our culture need to be empowered not exploited. Much research has been done on the consequences of our current media values and not much has changed. Perhaps studies, such as the proposed study, that show the results of the positive alternatives of media representation of women instead of the consequences of the current one, will have a more powerful impact. The way the media projects women sets a standard that society follows. Its time to change this standard. Highlighting the positive aspects of changing our medias portrayal and representations of women may help encourage and bring about change. Future studies can continue to explore the effects associated with positive priming and the implications can be related to real life. Training programs based on this logic can be developed to teach women how to self-prime, recognize, and assertively confront sexual harassment. This information can also be used by advertising companies, to design campaigns with the main focus of empowering the women of today. More importantly, if this information and the concept of empowering women were assimilated into our society and culture as a whole, then women would constantly be receiving positive priming on a daily basis, and the full potential of this experiments results would be realized.

Priming, Sexual Harassment Appendix A Interview Questions 1. How are you? 2. Did you have a hard time finding us? 3. Where are you from originally? 4. Do you have a boyfriend? 5. Have you graduated from college? 6. What is/was your major? 7. Have you worked as a research assistant before? 8. What do you like about research? 9. What jobs or volunteer experience have you had? 10. Tell me what strengths you have as a research assistant. 11. If you had to describe yourself with one word, what would it be? 12. Do people find you desirable?

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13. How would you characterize your passed working relationship with your co-workers? 14. Do you think it is important for women to wear bras to work? 15. What would be the hardest thing in this job for you? 16. Do you have any questions for me? Note: Questions listed in bold are the sexually harassing questions. Note: Interview questions previously formulated by Woodzicka and LaFrance (2001).

Priming, Sexual Harassment Appendix B Coded Behavioral-Responses Categories

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1. Ignore/Do Nothing: Participants ignore the sexual harassment and answer the question 2. Refocus: Participants reinterpret the question in order to give the question confirmation or legitimacy 3. Positive Counter: ask why the question was asked, politely Ask why and answer Ask why and refuse to answer State that question is irrelevant 4. Negative Counter: confronting the question, aggressively demanding the reason behind why the question was asked, tell off the interviewer. Tell Off (the interviewer) State that is it is None of your (the interviewers) business 5. Leave interview: Participants physically walk out of the interview room 6. Report to supervisor: Participants report the incident 7. Refuse to answer at least one question Note: Coded response categories previously devised in Woodzicka and LaFrance (2005).

Priming, Sexual Harassment References Chan, D.K., Chow, S., Lam, C., & Cheung, S. (2008). Examining the Job-Related, Psychological and Physical Outcomes of Workplace Sexual Harassment: A MetaAnalytic Review. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 32, 362-376.

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Fitzgerald, L.F. Hulin, C.L., & Drasgow, F. (1995) The antecedent and consequences of sexual Harassment in Organizations: An Integrated Model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 578-589 Fitzgerald, L.F., Suhllman, S.L., Bailey, N., Richards, M., Swecker, J., Gold, Y., Ormerod. M., & Weitzman, L. (1988). The incidence and dimension of sexual harassment in academia and the workplace. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 32, 152-175 Fitzgerald, L.F., Gelfand, M.J., & Drasgow, F. (1995). Measuring sexual harassment: theoretical and psychometric advances. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 17, 425-445. Fredrickson, B.L., & Roberts, T. (1997). Objectification theory. Toward understand womens lived experiences and mental health risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 17732006 Gutek, B., & Koss, M.P. (1993). Changed Women and Changed Organizations: Consequences of and coping with sexual harassment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 42, 28-48. Jaschik, M.L., & Fretz, B.R. (1991) Womens Perceptions and Labeling of Sexual Harassment. Sex Roles, 25, 19-23 Koss, M.P. (1985) The Hidden Rape Victim: Personality, Attitudinal and Situational Characteristics. Psychology of Womens Quarterly, 9, 61-76 Magley, V.J., & Shupe, E.I . (2005) Self-labeling sexual Harassment. Sex Roles, 52, 175198

Priming, Sexual Harassment Magely, V.J., Hulin, C.L., Fitzgerald, L.F., & DeNardo M., (1999) Outcomes of Self-Labeling Sexual Harassment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 390-402

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Roberts, T. & Gettman, J.T. (2004). Mere Exposure; Gender Differences in the Negative Effects of Priming a state of Self-Objectification. Sex Roles, 51, 17-27 Schneider, K.T., Swan S., & Fitzgerald, L.F., (1997). Job-Related and Psychological Effects of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Empirical Evidence From Two Organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 401-415 Terpstra, D.E., & Baker, D.D. (1988). Outcomes of sexual harassment charges. Academy of Management Journal, 31, 185-194 Woodzicka, J. A., & LaFrance, M. (2005). The Effects of Subtle Sexual Harassment on Womens Performance in a Job Interview. Sex Roles, 53, 63-77. Woodzicka. J.A., & LaFrance, M (2001). Real Versus Imagined Gender Harassment. Journal of Social Issues,

Priming, Sexual Harassment Table 1 Percentage of Group 1: Prime and Group 2:Non-Prime Responses to Sexually Harassing Interview Questions Group 1:Prime Responses Ignore/Do Nothing Refocus Positive Counter Ask why and answer Ask why and refuse to answer State that question is irrelevant Negative Counter Tell off None of your business Leave interview Report to supervisor Refuse to answer at least one question (n=XXX) X X XX XX XX XX X X X XX X XX

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Group 2: Non-Prime (n=XX) XX XX XX XX X X X X X X X X

Note. Percentages will exceed 100%.

Priming, Sexual Harassment Figure Captions Figure 1. Percentages of Group 1: Prime and Group 2:Non-Prime Responses to Sexually Harassing Interview Questions (Table 1). Participants in Group 1: Prime will show increased levels of negative counters, refusal to answer the questions and leaving the interview. Group 2:

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Non-Prime will report overall fewer responses confronting the harassment. Group 2: Non-Prime is predicted to only use ignoring and refocusing as strategies against the sexual harassment. Percentages will exceed 100% since participants will response in multiple ways. Figure 2. A bar graph representing the percentages of responses by group, depicting the number of women that confronted sexual harassment during the interview. Group 1: Prime will show a greater number of responses in attempts to confront and speak up against sexual harassment than Group 2:Non-Prime.

Priming, Sexual Harassment Figure 1. Group 1: Prime and Group 2: Non-Prime responses/reactions to sexual harassing questions during an interview.

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Group 1: Prime Group 2: Non-Prime

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Figure 2. Responses total per group for Groups 1:Prime and Group 2: Non-Prime, depicting the number of women that confronted sexual harassment during the interview.

Responses

Group 1:Prime

Group 2: Non-Prime

Group Membership