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Navigating Ambiguity: Developing the Workplace Sexual Intent Scale (WSIS) to Understand Cross-Gender Interactions Post-#MeToo

  • Amsterdam Leadership Lab 7 Van der Boechorststraat Amsterdam, NH, 1081 BT Netherlands (map)

Sophie Hudspith

Cross-gender interactions among colleagues are often filled with ambiguity, especially since the #MeToo movement. One factor contributing to confusion is the presence of behaviours that could equally be interpreted as friendly or sexual. There are individual differences in the level of sexual intent that is perceived from these behaviours, with research from dating contexts suggesting that men tend to be more likely to overperceive sexual intent. Sexual overperception has also been shown to lead to adverse outcomes, such as sexual harassment, making it important to understand this phenomenon within a work context. Due to the lack of a workplace measure, a series of studies were employed to develop a valid self-report measure of sexual intent perceptions among colleagues, using the act-frequency approach. In future research, we will adopt this scale to examine how and under which circumstances individuals are likely to perceive sexual interest in the behaviours of their colleagues, as well as what the implications are for doing so.