Allegations of Sexual Misconduct: A View from the Observation Deck of Power Distance Belief

We seek to understand how third-party observers respond to allegations of sexual transgressions, whether their responses vary and if so why, how they determine perpetrator sanctions, who is more forgiving of them, and what is the psychological mechanism underlying this preference. We draw on one dimension of Hofstede's (Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1991) theory of cultural orientations—power distance...