The Influence of Gender Identity and Sex on Perceptions of Relational Stalking

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how participant and target gender identity may alter perceptions of relational stalking. Gender roles and schemas may help to shape perceptions of stalking and thus change how people will judge a situation as stalking. In addition to examining judgments of stalking, this study examined the endorsement of stalking myths and how such endorsements become engrained and supported. A pilot study was conducted to test the portrayal of target gender identity in hypothetical relationship scenarios. The current study examined how participants rated a hypothetical scenario to be stalking based on target gender, participant gender and scenario severity. Scenario severity was the only significant predictor for how participants judged a scenario as stalking or non-stalking. Additional analyses indicated that men endorsed more stalking myths than women. The results of this study suggest that more research is necessary to investigate the intricacies of how sex and gender identity may alter judgments of stalking, regardless of severity.