The Boom of Sexual Assault Allegations in Hollywood
Hollywood has been under fire for several weeks since the first sexual harassment allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein arose. Since the first wave of charges, it seems that more figures in both Hollywood and the political world are being accused of sexual assaults. Powerful figures such as Senator Al Franken, Kevin Spacey, and Louis C.K. are only a few amongst the countless that have been accused during this new surge of accusations. This may be a result of the information cascade, a topic we covered in class. It refers to the idea that people who watch others behave in a certain manner behave in that manner themselves. With regards to the wave of sexual harassment assaults, it may be that women all over the country are feeling more empowered to share their accounts as other women do the same.
The information cascade becomes especially prominent when considering the effects of social networks. As we’ve seen in a previous homework, there seems to be a “boom-or-bust” effect for certain events (such as birthday parties) as a result of invitees having more information on who is going or not going to the events. In the same way, as people receive more information from social media describing others revealing their sexual assault encounters, it increases the probability that more people will reveal their encounters. An explicit example of this that was seen recently is the #MeToo movement that started on Twitter but crossed over to other social media platforms. Actress Alyssa Milano began the campaign by encouraging others to share their stories of sexual assault in an effort to reveal how prevalent the problem is in the country. The campaign even inspired spinoff #ItWasMe and #YesIHave movements in which men reveal their stories of sexually harassing others. The huge amount of confessions that have been revealed as a result of this movement indicate that there has been a “boom” of people coming forward with their stories.
Sources:
http://www.wbaltv.com/article/me-too-sexual-assault-campaign/13040994