How Do Men Evaluate and Blame Victims of Mobbing? Depending on the Victims’ Identification as Feminist or Egalitarian

Abstract

In the current research, our objective was to explore how men assess and assign blame to both a man and a woman who are victims of workplace mobbing, depending on whether they identify as feminist or egalitarian. It is well recognized that the label “feminist” carries distinct connotations when applied to individuals of different genders. However, it remains unclear whether these varied connotations are due to the label itself or its underlying meaning. Given that the feminist label has been traditionally stigmatized, we aimed to disentangle the influence of the label from its semantic content. To achieve this, we compared the evaluations and attributions of victim blame directed toward targets labeled as feminist with those labeled with a similar but more neutral term—that is, egalitarian—as well as with unlabeled targets. Considering that much of the previous research in this area has focused on samples predominantly composed of women, we aimed to investigate how men respond to these labels. Through three experiments involving male participants (N = 628), we presented fictitious scenarios depicting a man or a woman who were victims of workplace mobbing due to their identification as feminist or egalitarian. The key finding of our research is that the feminist label, rather than its semantic content, significantly influences the evaluations and assignment of blame expressed by men who strongly adhere to traditional male role norms. These findings underscore the importance of these labels (feminist and egalitarian) in social judgments, particularly when applied to victims of workplace mobbing.