美国国家公共电台 NPR How Likely Is Someone To Sexually Harass Others? This Scale Determines

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We're going to spend the next few minutes talking about one of the other major stories of recent months - excuse me - sexual harassment². In a few minutes, we'll hear a perspective on how religious institutions struggle to deal with complaints about sexual misconduct by clergy³.

While a lot of the stories have rightly focused on what happened, they often don't get to the question of why some people, mainly men, sexually harass¹ their colleagues and others don't. And one person who's been thinking about that question since the 1980s is psychologist John Pryor of Illinois State University. Years ago, he designed a scale to measure how likely someone is to sexually harass. I started by asking him about what motivated his research and how he developed it.

JOHN PRYOR: I designed the "Likelihood To Sexually Harass Scale" using some common stereotypes⁴ about men in power situations. In fact, one of the scenarios⁵ I developed focused on the casting couch in Hollywood. So I asked college men to imagine that they had such a job and that there's a woman they're attracted to. And I asked them, how likely is it that they would offer a role in a film in exchange for sexual favors?

One of the things that let me know I was onto something when I first started working on this was that there was a high level of consistency⁶ in men's responses to this. So men who would say that they would perform this act of sexual coercion⁷ in one situation were highly likely to say they'd do it in other situations. Conversely, you see that men who said they wouldn't do it were also unlikely to say they would do it in other situations.

MARTIN: Do you find specific characteristics in the individuals who are likely to engage in this conduct?

PRYOR: There are a series of beliefs that people have about sexual harassment that represent kind of a psychological underpinning⁸ for this kind of behavior - beliefs like women asking for it or women making false complaints. I can't tell you how many people I've been interviewed by ask me, what about the false complaints? Well, there are many false complaints. There are not many complaints period.

Some of the things that we see have to do with a lack of perspective-taking or empathy for other people. One of the other things I can tell you that's kind of consistent with that is that we can reduce the willingness of men to engage in sexual coercion - sexual harassment - by inducing them to think long and hard about perspectives of women. So that shows that, as a variable, something like taking the perspective of others is a very important thing, I believe.

MARTIN: What has struck you about - I mean, as we mentioned earlier, you started this research three decades ago. But now, the floodgates have been opened within the last couple of months, and there's all these different industries, as we've mentioned, including this one, where this behavior has been revealed. I'm just - I'm curious how you have reacted to this, as a person who's been studying this for so long.

PRYOR: One of the things that I and many others have concluded is it's a really common kind of thing to see some forms of sexual harassment in the workplace. So it's not surprising that you have all these people saying yeah, me too - this happened to me too. So I think that maybe what's surprising is why it took so long for people to come forth⁹.

One of the things that I suspect though, with regard to why it has taken so long - and I'll speculate here - is I think that admitting that you were a target or a victim of sexual harassment is somewhat of a stigma¹⁰. So people generally avoid identifying themselves as having some kind of stigmatizing¹¹ characteristic or stigmatizing behavior they've encountered.

But when you start to see people coming forth in public, one of the things you do is you start to remove some of the stigma. So what we see is when women hear other women say, oh, this happened to me, this happened to me, and you think, yeah, it happened to me, and they're less likely to think they're going to be treated negatively for coming forth and saying that it happened to them.

MARTIN: John Pryor is a distinguished¹² professor emeritus¹³ at Illinois State University. He created the "Likelihood To Sexually Harass Scale." We talked to him at the studios at Illinois State University.

Professor Pryor, thanks so much for speaking with us.

PRYOR: Thank you, Michel. It's nice to talk to you.

1 harass   

vt.使烦恼，折磨，骚扰

参考例句：

• Our mission is to harass the landing of the main Japaness expeditionary force.我们的任务是骚乱日本远征军主力的登陆。
• They received the order to harass the enemy's rear.他们接到骚扰敌人后方的命令。

2 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

3 clergy   

n.[总称]牧师，神职人员

参考例句：

• I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy would follow this example.我衷心希望，我国有更多的牧师效法这个榜样。
• All the local clergy attended the ceremony.当地所有的牧师出席了仪式。

4 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

6 consistency   

n.一贯性，前后一致，稳定性；(液体的)浓度

参考例句：

• Your behaviour lacks consistency.你的行为缺乏一贯性。
• We appreciate the consistency and stability in China and in Chinese politics.我们赞赏中国及其政策的连续性和稳定性。

7 coercion   

n.强制，高压统治

参考例句：

• Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions.既不诱供也不逼供。
• He paid the money under coercion.他被迫付钱。

8 underpinning   

n.基础材料；基础结构；（学说、理论等的）基础；（人的）腿v.用砖石结构等从下面支撑（墙等）( underpin的现在分词 )；加固（墙等）的基础；为（论据、主张等）打下基础；加强

参考例句：

• Underpinning this success has been an exemplary record of innovation. 具有典范性的创新确保了这次成功。 来自辞典例句
• But underpinning Mr Armstrong's technology changes is a human touch. 但阿姆斯特朗技术变革的支柱是人情味。 来自互联网

9 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

10 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

11 stigmatizing   

v.使受耻辱，指责，污辱( stigmatize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Laing regards the concept of mental illness as both unscientific and stigmatizing. 菜恩认为精神病的概念是不科学的和诬蔑性的。 来自辞典例句
• The existing social benefits are considered to be stigmatizing and repressive. 现存的社会福利被指责为是无价值的、残暴的。 来自互联网

12 distinguished   

adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的

参考例句：

• Elephants are distinguished from other animals by their long noses.大象以其长长的鼻子显示出与其他动物的不同。
• A banquet was given in honor of the distinguished guests.宴会是为了向贵宾们致敬而举行的。

13 emeritus   

adj.名誉退休的

参考例句：

• "Perhaps I can introduce Mr.Lake Kirby,an emeritus professor from Washington University?"请允许我介绍华盛顿大学名誉教授莱克柯尔比先生。
• He will continue as chairman emeritus.他将会继续担任荣誉主席。