Abstract

Countless training programs have attempted to decrease the occurrence of sexual harassment in the workplace. Previous research found that training programs had both positive and negative effects on participants’ attitudes and intentions, showing insufficiency in the current approach used to train participants. Recent research in the field of rape prevention education found training programs that engaged participants as bystanders, rather than as potential perpetrators of sexual assault, resulted in positive changes in participants’ rape myth beliefs and intentions. The current study compared training from a bystander approach to that of the traditional accusatory approach. The study found that, while the bystander approach resulted in significant change in participants’ sexual harassment attitudes and intentions from before training to after training, the magnitude of change was equivalent to that resulting from the accusatory approach. While male and female participants differed in magnitude of change in sexual harassment intentions, their changes in attitudes were similar.