Study motivation
Researcher-Practitioner Collaboration

Consulting Project(s) $\Rightarrow$ Questions about Characters/Format

Collaboration on Training Design $\Rightarrow$ Custom Manipulation Materials

Question
How do design choices in sexual harassment e-trainings affect the perceived integrity of the messenger and the effectiveness of the training?

Why this is important

Productivity loss from sexual harassment is estimated to be $\$$2.62 billion in 2018 ($\$$1053 per victim).

Experimental design

2x2x2 between subjects

• Training medium (text-based vs. video-based)
• Trainer sex (male vs. female)
• Trainer expertise (law vs. HR)

Sample of 210 undergraduate subjects (26/cell)

Commercial training product

• Designed for undergraduate interns
• Professional actors similar across non-treatment characteristics
• Identical staging and content across treatments
• Other likely gender-based biases (e.g., competence) were controlled via a profile.

Constant trainer profiles

Session procedure

• Subjects randomly assigned to one of the eight treatments.
• Provided the messenger profile.
• Watched/read a training excerpt on quid pro quo sexual harassment (4.5 min).
• Completed a calibrated survey about their perceptions of trainer integrity.
• Paid a flat $\$$5 show up fee $+\$$10 if passed attention checks.

Survey Measures

Theoretical motivation: media

• Motivation to learn common predictor of training effectiveness.
• SH Training usually lacks a job-related basis.
• Media richness alternative source of motivation.

(Naive) Hypothesis 1

SH training effectiveness will be greater for e-training with a high media rich format (e.g., video-based) than for e-training with a low media rich format (e.g., text-based).

Theoretical motivation: trainer integrity.

Rich media is associated with greater trust and perceived integrity of an information source.

• Particularly important in contexts related to moral issues like sexual harassment.

Hypothesis 2

SH training effectiveness will be mediated by perceived trainer integrity.

Media rich format (e.g., video-based) $\Rightarrow$ greater perceived trainer integrity

Gender-occupation incongruence

• Perceptions of integrity have been shown to interact with gender and occupation.
• Messages are more convincing when they are incongruent with the messenger’s self-interest.

Two types of legally qualified messengers for SH training:

• HR professionals (relatively female led)
• Lawyers (relatively male led)

Male HR and female lawyers are more likely to be perceived as "disrupters" and therefore given lower perceived integrity.

Hypothesis 3

The interaction between messenger gender-occupation incongruence and media richness is mediated through perceived messenger integrity to affect training effectiveness outcomes.

Summary

• Messenger gender-occupation incongruence is not directly related to perceptions of integrity
• Media richness attenuates the negative effect of gender-occupation incongruence on perceived integrity
• Perceived integrity significantly predicts all training outcomes
• Higher integrity perceptions are associated with better training effectiveness

Closing thoughts

• SH Training is unique to other forms of training
• Requires consideration of trainees’ biases in its design
• Perceived trainer integrity important component to training outcomes
• Video production is “worth it” for e-training programs
• Future research should continue examining SH training design elements through an interdisciplinary lens in collaboration with practitioners.