Protecting a threatened identity through sexual harassment: A social identity interpretation

Most of the research on identity threat has employed classical measures used in social identity research: reward allocation, trait attribution, and verbal hostility toward or devaluation of outgroup. What we want to argue here is that social identity theory can reasonably be extended to social behaviors not generally investigated in this field. In our specific case we believe that sexual harassment constitutes a form of outgroup derogation that has strong social implications for the victim and for the society at large, and that this behavior can be understood in the light of social identity theory. In other words, we will try to link two research areas that have traditionally developed in complete independence (social identity and sexual harassment research), but that can greatly profit from cross-fertilization. In this chapter we will first provide some background information on the definition and pervasiveness of sexual harassment. We will then report on a research project in which we have investigated the role of different forms of identity threat in sexual harassment. Subsequently, we will advance the hypothesis that sexual harassment may also serve ingroup bonding. Finally, we will close the chapter by indicating some tentative strategies of reducing harassment, among which is the introduction of social norms discouraging harassment.