Understanding the so-called Weinstein Effect Through the Lens of the Threshold Model of Behavioral Change
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/10/harvey-weinstein-effect-roy-price-mark-halperin-john-besh-sexual-harassment-assault
In October 2017, large numbers of women began to come forward, detailing the sexual assaults they had faced at the hands of film producer Harvey Weinstein. By the time of this writing (Mid-November 2017), over 50 women have spoken up about Weinstein’s abusive history. Following the initial accusations about Weinstein’s behavior, a large number of other prominent entertainment industry figures — most notably comedian Louis CK and actor Kevin Spacey — have also been accused of sexual abuse and misconduct. I want to stress the magnitude of this trend — the linked article from Vanity Fair lists 23 recently-outed entertainment industry abusers, and this list is only a fraction of the whole, comprised of only the biggest names that have been implicated. The trend has spread out of the entertainment industry and onto Facebook and Twitter, where millions of sexual abuse victims have taken to posting #MeToo in order to demonstrate how commonplace sexual abuse is.
As this trend of outing sexual abusers has grown into something of a movement, we have been seeing more and more members of the unaffected public asking: “Why is all of this coming to light now — and why so suddenly?” Perhaps, at some level, this movement can be explained by looking to the threshold model of behavioral change that was discussed in class. When abusers hold positions of power and influence, the people whom they victimize often felt unable to report the abuse that they have faced, for fear of the influence of their abusers. However, as more and more people in influential positions start to face consequences for their actions, it seems that people have become, at some level, more likely to share the stories of the abuse they have faced. The fear of being silenced, or mocked drops ever-so-slightly with each name added to the list. In other words, there seems to be a sort of cascading network effect with regards to the outing of abusers — as the number of people who face consequences for their sexual misconduct grows, the threshold level for reporting this sort of misconduct decreases.