The utility of the reasonable woman legal standard in hostile environment sexual harassment cases: A multimethod, multistudy examination.

The case of Ellison v. Brady (1991) was a landmark decision in establishing a new legal standard-the reasonable woman standard-for evaluating hostile environment allegations of sexual harassment and in relying, albeit indirectly, on social science evidence to support its decision. The authors review the legal standard in sexual harassment law, and the legal arguments and social science evidence underlying Ellison. The new standard could affect judgments broadly by sensitizing jurors to the situation of a female plaintiff, or it could affect judgments selectively by sensitizing only those people who might otherwise be especially insensitive to her situation. Five studies that focus on the effect of the reasonable woman standard on people's assessments of hostile environment sexual harassment indicate that the reasonable woman standard has modest, if any, effects on the judgments studied. Implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)