Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.

Accepted Paper:

Shame, social norms, and strategic targeting: a game-theoretic and empirical study of sexual harassment  
Pritha Dev (Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad)

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

We present a game theoretic set-up to understand understand the strategic behavior of harassers who leverage victim-shaming to select their target. We also show results from a survey which corroborate the findings of the model.

Paper long abstract:

We consider sexual harassment in public places and the strategic targeting of victims. We present a game theoretic set-up where we a potential harasser leverages the fact that victims can be shamed when they ask for external support. Next, via survey experiments we highlight how victims are targeted in real life. First, we elicit the individual gender norms of the respondent regarding behavior that is considered to contrary to the socially acceptable norm for women. We show that individual norm are often at variance from what the individual understands is the accepted social norm. Next, we show that women who break the accepted social norms are perceived to face a very different level of threat in public places. Most importantly, we note that victims who are seen to be defying the norm are also less likely to find support from bystanders.

Panel P13
Whose progress? Rethinking development through the lens of women's safety
  Session 2 Friday 27 June, 2025, -