Non-sexual workplace harassment (NSWH) is a prevalent issue, yet there is limited experimental research investigating how this harassment is perceived. In the present study, male and female participants (N = 242) read eight vignettes in which a supervisor insulted an employee. Participants then rated the extent to which each vignette involved harassment, as well as reactions to the employee (e.g. sympathy toward employee) and supervisor (e.g. anger toward supervisor). The supervisor's gender (man or woman), employee's gender (man or woman), and the type of verbal insult (regarding the employee's weight or intelligence) were varied. Results indicated higher ratings when vignettes involved (a) a supervisor and employee of different genders (vs same-gender dyads); (b) weight (vs intelligence) comments, especially made by a male supervisor; and (c) a female employee who received a weight comment (vs other employee gender, comment type combinations). In addition, female (vs male) participants returned higher ratings of reactions to the employee and supervisor, but not attributions of harassment. These findings indicated that not all contexts of NSWH are perceived as equally severe.
Group members may resort to subjective evaluations of their ingroup's past harm-doing against the outgroup, and this poses a challenge for intergroup reconciliation in a society. Past research has shown a link between ingroup identification and subjective evaluation of the past violence against an outgroup in intergroup contexts. In this study, we aimed to test the serial mediating effect of prejudice and competitive victimhood beliefs in the relationship between ingroup identification and subjective evaluation of the past. Two hundred eighty-nine participants (170 Turks and 119 Kurds) completed measures of Ingroup Identification, Modern Prejudice, Competitive Victimhood, and Subjective Evaluation of Past Violence. After controlling for age, gender, and ethnic group, results showed that prejudice and competitive victimhood sequentially mediated the relationship between ingroup identification and subjective evaluation of past violence. Overall, these findings suggest that both Turks and Kurds hold legitimizing attitudes toward ingroup harmdoings, and that ethnic identification, prejudice, and competitive victimhood operate together in shaping such attitudes, carrying important implications for policymaking aimed at intergroup reconciliation.
