What Do People Who Have Committed Sexual Harassment or Sexual Assault Say About Why They Committed It?

This piece was first written in 2017, and first appeared on my website on July 1, 2026 This is an attempt to find out. This essay is the third in a series examining sexual harassment and assault. The first essay can be read here, which also includes more information about the study participants. The second essay can be read here. The results shown below are from a study I ran about sexual harassment and sexual assault on a sample of people in the U.S. (574 people recruited on ou...
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What happens when your beliefs can’t change?

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This is part 2 in my series about "anchor beliefs" - but you don't need to read part 1 in order to understand it. I think that almost everyone has beliefs that are essentially unchangeable. These don't feel to us like beliefs but like incontrovertible truths. Counter-evidence can't touch them. They are beliefs we can't change our mind about. I call these "Anchor Beliefs." When Anchor Beliefs are false, we distort reality to fit them. So, what distortions do some reasonably common Anchor B...
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