The Call of the Wolfpack: How Social Attraction Toward the Harasser Complements Ambivalent Sexism in Inducing Empathic Failure with the Victim of Stranger Harassment

Stranger harassment is one of the most common forms of harassment, experienced mostly by women. Although the literature shows that this experience has detrimental consequences for women, stranger harassment is commonly conceived by people as innocuous behavior. The following study aims to understand the process underlying the misconception of the consequence of stranger harassment, by investigating the impact of sexist beliefs on bystander empathic comprehension of the victim—i.e., comprehension of emotions and potential behavioral changes due to the harassment—considering the role of social attraction towards the perpetrator. To achieve this aim, a sample of 200 heterosexual men was asked to watch a video of a catcalling scene. They were then asked to rate their social attraction toward the male harasser in the video, to rate the extent to which the woman felt negative emotions, and to evaluate her possible behavioral changes following the harassment. Individuals’ attitudes (rape myth acceptance and ambivalent sexism) were assessed. Results showed that hostile sexist beliefs are associated with decreased attribution of emotions to the victim and reduced expected changes in her future behaviors. Crucially, the link of hostile sexist beliefs with this failed empathic comprehension was explained by the social attraction towards the harasser, even when controlling for rape myth acceptance, a well-known dimension strictly related to hostile sexism and decreased empathic concern.