High-profile sexual misconduct media triggers sex harassment recall and reinterpretation

• Date: 17 September 2019
• Pages: 68-86
• Published date: 17 September 2019
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-12-2018-0222
• Author: Brittney Amber,Tuyen K. Dinh,Arielle N. Lewis,Leidy D. Trujillo,Margaret S. Stockdale
• Subject Matter: Hr & organizational behaviour,Employment law

High-profile sexual misconduct

media triggers sex harassment

recall and reinterpretation

Brittney Amber, Tuyen K. Dinh, Arielle N. Lewis,

Leidy D. Trujillo and Margaret S. Stockdale

Department of Psychology,

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore a possible effect of #MeToo media on individuals’personal

recall and reinterpretation of sex harassment (SH) experiences. The authors experimentally examine how

exposure to high-profile stories of sexual misconduct triggers memories and reinterpretation of one’s own

past SH experiences.

Design/methodology/approach –Using a sample of 393 US adults, participants were randomly assigned

to read one of four media passages, two of which were news stories or transcripts of high-profile cases of

sexual harassment or misconduct (e.g., the Trump Access Hollywood transcript), then completed the Sexual

Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ) and follow-up questions about how the media impacted their memory of

their prior SH experiences.

Findings –Sexual misconduct media stories, compared to control conditions, indirectly predicted self-report

of past SH (SEQ) through both remembering and reinterpreting one’s past experiences. Gender and political

ideology moderated the indirect effects such that the effects of the media stories were stronger for women and

for those higher on progressive political ideology.

Practical implications –This study experimentally demonstrated what has publicly been assumed to be a

driving force behind the upswing of SH reports and the seriousness by which they have been regarded during

the #MeToo era: publicized stories of high-profile sexual misconduct triggers personal recall of having been

sexually harassed in the past and reinterpretation of SH experiences. The #MeToo movement may be acting

as a driver of social change, facilitating changes in social norms. As these social norms change, organizations

should be prepared to effectively respond to a possible increase in reporting SH experiences due changes in

norms around reporting SH.

Originality/value –This study uses an experimental design to investigate the role of high-profile media

stories about SH as a driving force behind the #MeToo movement.

Keywords Media, Memory, #MeToo, Sex harassment

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

In 2006, Tarana Burke created a movement that she hoped would bring awareness of the

sexual violence experienced by women of color (Ohlheiser, 2017). In October of 2017,

following high-profile cases of powerful men engaging in sexual misconduct, this

movement exploded throughout the country. Survivors and targets of sexual assault and

harassment began sharing #MeToo on social media in a wave that generated over

19 million tweets from October 2017 to September 2018 on Twitter alone (Anderson and

Toor, 2018). According to Facebook, 4.7 million people used #MeToo in 12m posts during

the first 24 hours and 45 percent of people had at least one friend who shared the hashtag

#MeToo (CBS, 2017; Santiago and Criss, 2017). Between April 2017 and May 2019,

263 celebrities, politicians, CEOs and others have been accused of sexual misconduct and

the number keeps rising (Vox, 2019). The 2016 presidential election played a pivotal role in

the strong media documentation of the movement, with countless stories of women

coming forward to accuse then-presidential candidate Donald Trump of sex harassment

(SH), along with audio recording where Trump admitted perceiving that he was entitled to

grab women’sbodieswithoutpermission.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 39 No. 1, 2020

pp. 68-86

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-12-2018-0222

Received 4 December 2018

Revised 17 May 2019

1 August 2019

Accepted 13 August 2019

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

68

EDI

39,1

It is important to delve into why the #MeToo movement started gaining momentum

after the 2016 elections. Numerous accounts and public claims began to surface in media

with targets of sexual misconduct stating that hearing Trump himself admit to sexually

predacious conduct (i.e. the Access Hollywood recording; New York Times, 2016) triggered

recall of past incidents similar to his behavior (see Johnson, 2018). Indeed, research has

found that media stories can trigger recall effects, particularly if they are similar in trauma

(Elliott, 1997). On Thursday, September 17, 2018 following Dr Christine Blasey-Ford’s

testimony of her traumatizing experience at the hands of Supreme Court nominee Brett

Kavanaugh, there was a 201 percent spike in calls to America’s National Sexual Assault

Hotline compared with a typical day (Yan, 2018). Yet, to the best of our knowledge, there has

not been an experimental study of how such media stories may affect the recall of one’s own

sexual trauma, especially in the #MeToo context.

In this paper, we examine the prevalence of self-report rates of SH for men and women,

delving into the reasons as to why incident reports have historically been low. Then, we

discuss possible reasons for the unprecedented levels of SH reports within the context of

the #MeToo movement, specifically why memories of sexual trauma, such as SH, may be

distorted or decayed in targets’memories and why media exposure to high-profile stories

of sexual misconduct may trigger those memories. Additionally, in combination with the

ambiguous understanding of SH and the wide variability in individuals’perceptionsof SH

(Rotundo et al., 2001), we propose that these high-profile stories of sexual misconduct

facilitate a shifting norm where people recognize and claim more behaviors as SH than

may have been the norm in the past as targets’and victims’storiesofSHandabuseare

being heard and believed. Finally, we present a study testing the effects of media (i.e. news

stories of sexual misconduct from high-profile individuals) on SH recall and

reinterpretation. We hypothesize that media exposure will increase the likelihood of

recalling and reinterpreting SH experiences, which will in turn explain increases in

personal reports of experiencing SH.

With such a seemingly sudden impact of the #MeToo movement, the continuation of SH

allegations in the media, and the increase of targets reaching out to trauma hotlines, we

focus on exposure to high-profile media on sexual exploitation and how it triggers memory

recall and reinterpretation for individuals who have experienced SH in the past. Through

this focus, we hope to theorize and understand what may serve as the trigger fueling the

#MeToo movement. This research therefore has several contributions; first, our research

uncovers specific underlying mechanisms explicating how media exposure in the era of

#MeToo can influence the rise in reporting, claiming, or acknowledging personal SH

experiences. While this adds to extant research and theory on the role of media in triggering

memory of similar trauma (Elliott, 1997; Wiener et al., 2005), our research directly brings this

into the context of #MeToo. Additionally, our research on the role of media in fueling the

#MeToo movement adds to important new theorizing on the impact of social norms on

facilitating social change (Tankard and Paluck, 2016). Our theory specifically looks at how

media and news surrounding a social issue may underly changing social norms, and in turn,

facilitate social change. Thus, we bridge prior research connecting the role of media in

triggering recall of past experiences and the role of social norms in facilitating social change.

This research is also practically relevant, as it addresses the need to better understand the

impact of the #MeToo movement for organizations. While SH has been a focus of scientific

and legal inquiry since the late 1970s, in 2018, the Society for Industrial and Organizational

Psychology listed addressing SH as the number one workplace trend (SIOP, 2018).

Our research indicates that as norms shift with the #MeToo movement, organizations and

managers should prepare to address the impact that #MeToo media may have on their

employees, specifically as exposure to this media may lead to an increase in claiming or

reporting more SH experiences.

69

High-profile

sexual

misconduct