Oni Science
  • Home
  • Environment
  • Humans
  • Nature
  • Physics
  • Space
  • Tech
  • Video
  • Contact Us
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Amazon Disclaimer
    • DMCA / Copyrights Disclaimer
Skip to content
Oni Science
Your Daily Science News
  • Environment
  • Humans
  • Nature
  • Physics
  • Space
  • Tech
  • Video
  • Contact Us
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Amazon Disclaimer
    • DMCA / Copyrights Disclaimer
Humans

It’s Not Just Men in Power Who Use Unwanted Sexual Behavior For Gain

September 22, 2022 by admin 0 Comments

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Pinterest
Share on LinkedIn

New research into workplace behavior has identified men in lower, subordinate positions as those most likely to use flirting to try and get ahead in their job – and the most likely to be using sexual innuendo and harrassing female bosses too.

The root of what the researchers describe as unwanted social sexual behavior from these men seems to be a desire to look more masculine and powerful in front of colleagues – even when those initiating the behavior know it might be viewed as offensive.

This is based on a variety of tests and experiments involving a total of 2,598 adults and students living in the US, most self-identifying as heterosexual. The volunteers were asked to try and define their own social sexual identity (SSI) – a new term introduced in this study that indicates how someone thinks they might leverage sex appeal in the pursuit of personal gains.

“Most of the literature in this field focuses on men in power,” says psychologist Laura Kray, from the University of California, Berkeley.

“But through a number of studies, we’ve debunked the myth that social sexual behavior is something that only high-power men do – that somehow power is this aphrodisiac that makes people take advantage of others sexually.”

The tests took several forms, including asking participants to pick out questions that they would feel comfortable asking their colleagues, and to assess hypothetical interactions between people who were working together.

In one experiment, 203 volunteers were told they would be paired up with a partner, and could exchange personal information (like their gender, life goals, personality traits and attractiveness) beforehand in written form. They were then matched with an unknown individual of the opposite sex and given a role of either boss or subordinate.

The next step was getting the volunteers to choose from a list of questions they would like to pose to their new partner. These were divided into questions with and without sexual connotations (so “have you ever had a workplace relationship?” versus “have you ever had a workplace conflict?” for example).

Male students who were told they would be working for a female boss chose social sexual questions more often than female students in the same situation. They also chose more social sexual questions than male and female volunteers who were told they’d be boss to a male or female subordinate.

That counters the traditional stereotypes: that females being employed in lower-level jobs looking to advance their careers or powerful male bosses wanting to manipulate others are the ones who are most likely to engage in sexual social behavior while at work.

“In other words, it’s a desire for more power – not holding power – that corrupts,” says organizational psychologist Jessica Kennedy, from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.

What’s more, there’s a link to social sexual identity as well: the men most likely to engage in sexual behavior were also most likely to describe themselves as “charming flirts” and as people with “sex appeal”. A strong sexual identity acts as a predictor of how people are going to behave at work.

The researchers are keen to point out that their study doesn’t go into the rightness or wrongness of flirting in this way, and that the conclusions they’ve drawn don’t mean that sexual harrassment can’t come from those in powerful positions – as it clearly can.

Future training on sexual harrassment in the workplace could cover some self-reflection on whether or not “teasing” or “joking” could be an early indicator of something more serious, the team behind the new study suggests.

“People generally have positive associations with being a flirt or being charming or having sex appeal,” says Kray. “But when we take on that identity, it leads to certain behavioral patterns that reinforce the identity. And then, people use that identity as an excuse.”

The research has been published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

This article was originally published by Sciencealert.com. Read the original article here.

Articles You May Like

We Can Now Hear The ‘Sound’ of One of The Most Beautiful Stars
Stunning Green Comet Will Be Closest to Earth Today, at Peak Brightness
An Incredible Thing Happens When Dolphins And Humans Team Up
Physicists Used Sound Waves to Give a Tiny Sun Its Own Kind of Gravity
A Hidden Food Web Exists in The Desert, And It Thrives on Death

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Articles

  • A Hidden Food Web Exists in The Desert, And It Thrives on Death
  • It’s Possible Neanderthals Evolved So They Wouldn’t Smell Their Own Stink, Study Finds
  • We Can Now Hear The ‘Sound’ of One of The Most Beautiful Stars
  • Astronomers Studied More Than 5,000 Black Holes to Figure Out Why They Twinkle
  • Astronomers Find What May Be a Habitable World 31 Light-Years Away
  • Bar Graphs Induce a Hidden Bias in Interpretation, Experiment Shows
  • This Small Australian Marsupial Is Quite Literally Dying For Sex
  • ‘Polluted Realism’: How Monet’s Art Mirrors The Evolution of Smog
  • The First Stars May Have Been Heavier Than 100,000 Suns
  • An Incredible Thing Happens When Dolphins And Humans Team Up

Space

  • We Can Now Hear The ‘Sound’ of One of The Most Beautiful Stars
  • Astronomers Studied More Than 5,000 Black Holes to Figure Out Why They Twinkle
  • Astronomers Find What May Be a Habitable World 31 Light-Years Away
  • The First Stars May Have Been Heavier Than 100,000 Suns
  • Stunning Green Comet Will Be Closest to Earth Today, at Peak Brightness

Physics

  • A Lost Interview With The ‘Father of The Big Bang’ Was Just Discovered
  • This Physicist Says Electrons Spin in Quantum Physics After All. Here’s Why
  • Physicists Break Record Firing a Laser Down Their University Corridor
  • Scientists Have Built a Macroscopic Tractor Beam Using Laser Light
  • Firing a Laser Into The Sky Can Divert Lightning, Experiment Shows

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • March 2017
  • November 2016

Categories

  • Environment
  • Humans
  • Nature
  • Physics
  • Space
  • Tech
  • Video

Useful Links

  • Contact Us
  • About us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Amazon Disclaimer
  • DMCA / Copyrights Disclaimer

Recent Posts

  • A Hidden Food Web Exists in The Desert, And It Thrives on Death
  • It’s Possible Neanderthals Evolved So They Wouldn’t Smell Their Own Stink, Study Finds
  • We Can Now Hear The ‘Sound’ of One of The Most Beautiful Stars
  • Astronomers Studied More Than 5,000 Black Holes to Figure Out Why They Twinkle
  • Astronomers Find What May Be a Habitable World 31 Light-Years Away

Copyright © 2023 by Oni Science. All rights reserved. All articles, images, product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement unless specified. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Powered by WordPress using DisruptPress Theme.