The Information Cascade of Sexual Misconduct Allegations
As soon as the media reveals one allegation of sexual misconduct against a celebrity or other public figure, many others will shortly follow. These subsequent allegations demonstrate a real-life application of information cascades. I noticed this cascade shortly after Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual harassment because the names of other celebrities such as Ben Affleck and Kevin Spacey suddenly joined Weinstein’s, flashing across the news screens in reference to allegations of sexual misconduct. Therefore, I decided to look into the concept of information cascades with sexual assault allegations.
A November 14th Associated Press article named this spread of accusations the “Weinstein Effect,” where a “flurry of allegations” are sparked among powerful men, usually in the Hollywood and political realms. I found a connection between this sudden “flurry” of new information and information cascades because suddenly, when presented with newfound information about sexual assaults, more women feel empowered to come forward with their own stories of sexual misconduct. This cascade demonstrates both information-based and direct benefit reasoning. Due to the number of allegations, women are more likely to share their stories because previous accusations add believability to new allegations. This strength-in-numbers mentality represents both aspects of cascade causes because women feel more secure in coming forward at the same time since they feel their stories will be more credible en masse.
In another article published in CNN Politics on November 18th, writers Joyce Tseng and Greg Krieg discussed the phenomenon of Google search interest on various men accused of some kind of sexual misconduct. They cited the graph below to talk about the cascade-like effect of sexual abuse allegations:
The different spikes demonstrate the points at which different men were accused most prominently of sexual misconduct, and in this graph, more allegations also seems to correspond with increased numbers of allegations (as well as the celebrity status of the individual accused). In this case, one can see the information cascade effect where, since an initial group sparked curiosity and began initiating allegations, more interest spread about these men’s accusations. This model graphically depicts an information cascade based more strictly on information because the people Googling these men have no direct benefit other than curiosity.
Overall, I found it interesting that accusations of sexual misconduct mirror information cascades. Simultaneously, it makes sense that women feel more comfortable with their accusations when they think others will believe them and that some action or step toward prosecution will be taken (i.e. safety in numbers).
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/18/politics/weinstein-wave-sexual-harassment-american-politics/index.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/harvey-weinstein-effect-goes-global-powerful-men-confronted/