The effect of personality and gender on University of Malta students’ tolerance towards sexual harassment : a quantitative study

Abstract

A study focusing on gender and personality and their impact on tolerance towards sexual harassment in Maltese University of Malta students was done. Sexual harassment consists of gender harassment, which includes sexist comments and jokes about women/gender in general; unwanted sexual attention which consists of sexual comments, questions or touching; and sexual coercion which involves agreement to sexual requests in exchange for promotions or for the removal of threats. Most research has been done in work settings; however it was felt that nowadays the definition is broad enough to be used in more general settings, such as clubs. Research on sexual harassment is important as sexual harassment has harmful effects on the victims, including dread, panic, depression, and anxiety. Research has shown gender and personality to be factors that affect tolerance towards sexual harassment. A random sample of 1000 students attending University of Malta was chosen, and a questionnaire sent out. The questionnaire tested personality using Carver and White’s 1994 “Constructs in Gray’s Behavioral Inhibition and Activation Systems” where participants had to choose from an interval scale with 1 being least like them and 5 being the most like them, as they see themselves. The questionnaire also had a section consisting of various hypothetical scenarios of possible perceived sexual harassment. Participants had to choose from a interval scale from 1 to 5, with one being “Not tolerable at all” and 5 being “Perfectly tolerable”. A Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine if there were differences in the tolerance score between males and females. An ANOVA was conducted to test personality and the personality traits were tested separately. The mean of each trait was found and tested against tolerance. The results of this study showed that while there were differences between genders when it came to tolerance, there were no statistical differences when it came to personality. While the results may have said there were no statistical significances when it came to the traits Anxiety, Fun-Seeking, Drive and reward-Responsiveness but mean graphs showed a difference between low, medium and high levels of each characteristic. When it comes to gender tolerance is lower in females but most males were found to have low tolerance for the hypothetical scenarios.