Understanding Male Bystander Perceptions of Public Sexual Harassment: A Repertory Grid Approach

Public sexual harassment (PSH) is a form of gender-based violence that ranges from verbal comments to unwanted physical contact. It remains a widespread social problem that is shaped by complex social and cultural processes. This exploratory study examined male bystanders’ construction and differentiation of PSH forms using a mixed methods approach based on Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory (PCT) using the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT). The elements consisted of seven PSH scenarios and were used in individual repertory grid interviews with 10 male university students from a private university in India. The results indicated that participants’ perceptions were structured around two axes: a physical-spatial axis (e.g. proximity, obstruction and force) and an interpretive-cognitive axis (e.g. ambiguity, intentionality and expressiveness). Verbal harassment (whistling and catcalling) was considered different from physically invasive harassment (groping and blocking a person’s path). Research shows that bystanders are more likely to intervene when the situation is clearly harmful. They are reluctant when the behavior is ambiguous, particularly verbal or non-contact. These findings highlight the importance of subjective meaning-making in shaping bystander responses to public sexual harassment and illustrate the utility of RGT as a methodology for understanding how people interpret and differentiate between harassment incidents in public space.