THE NAIVE MISUSE OF POWER - NONCONSCIOUS SOURCES OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Sexual harassment is considered from the perspective of power abuse in general. Recent research on sexually aggressive men has underscored t he importance of power and dominance as a motivator of their behavior toward women. One striking feature of both sexual harassment and the m isuse of power is the lack of awareness offenders often show regarding the inappropriateness of their actions. This lack of awareness is sim ilar to automatic or nonconscious effects demonstrated in social perce ption and judgment research, such as the unintentional influence of on e's stereotypes in forming impressions of others. The possibility that having power within a situation automatically and nonconsciously trig gers a sexuality schema, just as racial or gender features automatical ly trigger stereotypes of that group, is discussed and supporting rese arch is described. It is shown, for example, that for men likely to se xually harass, merely activating the concept of power without their kn owledge causes them to find the same woman more attractive. The possib le origins of the automatic power --> sex link, and its implications f or preventing sexual harassment behavior, are discussed.