Everyday Stranger Harassment and Women’s Objectification

The present research suggests that stranger harassment (i.e., experiencing unwanted sexual attention from strangers in public) is a frequent experience for young adult women, and that it has negative implications for their well-being. First, stranger harassment was positively related to self-objectification (Fredrickson & Roberts, Psychol Women Quart 21:173–206 1997). This was true for women who coped with stranger harassment using common strategies (passive, self-blame, or benign), but not for women who used an uncommon, active coping strategy (e.g., confronting the harasser). Second, stranger harassment experiences and self-objectification were positively related to women’s fear of and perceived risk of rape. Further, women who feared rape were more likely to restrict their freedom of movement. In concert, the findings suggest that stranger harassment may have both direct and indirect negative effects on women’s lives, and that it is a phenomenon worthy of future research.

Social Justice in Our Minds,Homes, and Society: The Nature,Causes, and Consequences of Implicit Bias

Social injustice is disruptive both personally and collectively, and the ordinariness of implicit prejudice plays a role in this process. In this report, I discuss the correspondence between implicit and explicit biases, and factors that moderate their association. In addition, I differentiate between declarative and procedural definitions of implicit bias, which have implications for their nonconscious nature. To underscore their conceptual distinction, I also present evidence that points to different origins for implicit and explicit biases. Finally, actions for confronting implicit bias are prescribed.