Perceptions of Victims of Street Harassment: Effects of Nationality and Hair Color in Vietnam

Abstract

Very little research has investigated how a woman’s appearance affects the perceptions and judgments of her as a victim of harassment. This study focuses on how Vietnamese participants evaluate victims of street harassment based on nationality (Vietnamese vs. American) and hair color (dark/brown vs. light/blonde). After randomly viewing a blonde or dark-haired Vietnamese or White American target and reading her story of street harassment, participants rated her perceived threat, negative emotions, benign coping, self-blame, self-esteem, and frequency of street harassment. The results align with the hypotheses that blondes will be judged to experience less threat, negative emotions, and self-blame, but to experience more benign coping, self-esteem, and frequency of street harassment. This main effect for hair color, however, was qualified by significant interactions of these dependent measures suggesting that the blonde Vietnamese target was especially likely to not experience street harassment as negative. This research suggests that hair color, much like clothing and makeup, is used to judge women’s experiences of street harassment.