Using an Evolutionary Psychological Approach to Develop Sex-Specific Anti-Harassment Interventions

Traditional sexual harassment interventions overlook asymmetries in men and women's evolved mating motivations and desires. Thus, an evolutionary-informed view of harassment may enable the development of innovative anti-harassment interventions catered to each sex. Two types of interventions will be explored. The first will be an educational intervention rooted in sex differences in sexual behaviour and interpretation. The second will be a task designed to aid accurate detection (and/or production) of disinterest indicators following sexual solicitation. This work builds upon Shonagh's MSc research into sex specific models of harassment tolerance/sensitivity. We anticipate no issues of ethics or researcher safety during intervention design and development. However, we may consider testing the intervention on a group of offenders. Prof. Davies is a clinical and forensic psychologist and has great experience with this population. Thus, the supervisory team has the expertise necessary to reduce risk and maintain ethical integrity during this process