Advances in the understanding of same-sex and opposite-sex sexual harassment Mons Bendixen ⁎, Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway abstract article info Article history: Initial receipt 2 January 2017 Final revision received 4 January 2017 Available online xxxx Sexual harassment has traditionally been studied as men's harassment of women. This has led to a lack of knowl- edge about same sex harassment, and women harassing peers. This has also downplayed the inherent sexual na- ture of sexual harassment acts. While keeping in mind that sexual harassment is undesirable and causes distress, one needs to consider that many acts that are perceived as unwanted may not primarily be motivated by a wish to derogate but rather by an interest in soliciting short-term sex. In the current study we examined both perpe- trators as well as victims of harassment, and specified both sex of perpetrator and target (a total of eight sex con- stellations). We reproduced the previously found association between unrestricted sociosexuality and sexual harassment in a representative sample of 1326 high school students (57% women). In all regression models sociosexuality outcompeted traditional measures such as porn exposure, rape stereotypes and hostile sexism. Based on the original work we divided the harassment acts into two groups of tactics: sexual solicitation and competitor derogation. Men were particularly subject to derogatory tactics from other men, while women were particularly subject to solicitation from opposite sex peers. Sexual harassment may be understood better from a human sexual strategies perspective, including competitor derogation and mate solicitation. As such, so- ciosexual orientation predicts both same sex derogation and opposite sex solicitation. The current results high- light the importance of considering the sex of both perpetrator and target. This advanced understanding of the inherently sexual nature of sexual harassment needs to inform future prevention studies. Unrestricted sociosexuality predicts sexual harassment in all constellations better than traditional social science models. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Sexual harassment has traditionally been studied and understood within the social sciences as a phenomenon with men as perpetrators and women as victims (Kennair & Bendixen, 2012). Mainstream social science theories – strongly alluding to feminist perspectives – have ex- plained harassment as driven by male power, paternalism and the mo- tive to dominate women (Begany & Milburn, 2002; Conroy, 2013; Fiske & Glick, 1995). In contrast, scholars working within the evolutionary perspective have suggested an alternative explanation, one located in sex differences in the desire for sex (Buss, 1996; Kennair & Bendixen, 2012; Vandermassen, 2011). Previously, we examined these two explanations by studying both same-sex and opposite-sex sexual harassment in a community sample of high school students (Kennair & Bendixen, 2012). Consistent with ex- planations related to differences in the desire for short-term sex, we found that a non-restrictive sociosexual orientation toward uncommit- ted sex (i.e., one-night stands) predicted being harassed as well as harassing others, and did so better than measures reflecting attitudes condoning forced sex or classical sexism. When studying unwanted sexual attention between opposite-sex emerging adults, one should not ignore the possibility that the advanc- ing party might be sexually interested. This possibility was underscored by the empirical association between harassment behavior and unre- stricted sociosexuality (Kennair & Bendixen, 2012). This conclusion is further supported by the association between sociosexuality and being the target of harassment, given that signals of sexual unrestrictedness can be detected by others (Sakaguchi & Hasegawa, 2006), and that perpetrators will target victims with greater harassability traits (Buss & Duntley, 2008; Sakaguchi & Hasegawa, 2007). Unrestricted sociosexuality is characterized by an openness to uncommitted sexual relationships reflecting promiscuity and a preference for one-night stands, high acceptance for uncommitted sex, and frequent sexual arousal and activation of sexual fantasies when meeting people of the opposite-sex (Penke & Asendorpf, 2008; Simpson & Gangestad, 1991). In short, those more interested in short-term sex engage in more ha- rassment of those who are similarly more interested in short-term sex than their peers. Sexual attention is, obviously, not always desired, and such attention will be unwelcome or aversive. While harassment is defined in the liter- ature as subjectively experienced aversive sexual attention from the Evolution and Human Behavior xxx (2017) xxx–xxx ⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491, Trondheim, Norway. E-mail address: mons.bendixen@svt.ntnu.no (M. Bendixen). ENS-06107; No of Pages 9 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.01.001 1090-5138/© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Evolution and Human Behavior journal homepage: www.ehbonline.org Please cite this article as: Bendixen, M., & Kennair, L.E.O., Advances in the understanding of same-sex and opposite-sex sexual harassment, Evolution and Human Behavior (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.01.001