From: The Washington Post
What makes some men sexual harassers? Science tries to explain the creeps of the world.
The list of alleged sexual harassers keeps getting longer and the details of sexual assault and harassment ever more disturbing. The torrent of cases pouring out in news reports and Twitter — tales of men grabbing women, emerging naked from showers uninvited, threatening women’s careers, or worse — raises a horrified question: What makes these men behave this way?
Sure, some of the behavior can be chalked up to boorish personalities or outright misogyny. But how much of the behavior is driven by the man himself and how much by the culture around him? What exactly makes one man more likely to harass than another? And what is going on inside their heads when they make unwanted advances?
These are questions that social scientists and psychologists have puzzled over in recent years. And their growing body of research has yielded interesting and at times provocative answers, which are especially relevant in this cultural moment.
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Comments
Sexual harassment and rape have given an evolutionary advantage to men in the past, so these ‘selfish genes’ seem to be expressed often. It is a short-term mating strategy for men that has obviously worked in history. And they probably don’t do it after much thinking; it just comes ‘naturally’.
One important item to consider is that women for evolutionary reasons may easily give in to harassment and rape by powerful men. They had better chances of caring for their children. Some women freeze during rape, and again this may have given their offspring an evolutionary advantage.
Evolutionary psychology seems heartless and cruel, so it’s not mentioned often. But it’s good to understand this. Sexual harassment will be with us for many millennia to come.
I think the increase in sexual ads, videos and media could be a cause for rise in sexual assault, also more opportunities.
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