Male and female responses to ambiguous instructor behaviors

Abstract

Sexual harassment is widely prevalent within academic environments. Yet, many implicit harassing behaviors bear resemblance to instructor immediacy behaviors (i.e., behaviors intended to reduce relational distance). Since females are largely the targets of sexual harassment, it was proposed that they would rate immediacy behaviors to be less appropriate and would experience less comfort with these behaviors than their male counterparts. Three-hundred-fifty-four students (approximately 70% of whom were European-American) were asked to rate 19 ambiguous instructor behaviors for appropriateness. Participants were also asked to indicate how personally comfortable they would be with the described behaviors. Results indicated males rated 12 of 19 behaviors to be significantly more appropriate than females and indicated significantly greater comfort with 14 of 19 behaviors.