In both past and present, stalking laws often include a ‘reasonable fear’ component, which considers whether a ‘reasonable person’ would be fearful in response to a given behavior, to label the behavior as stalking. The nature of fear is highly subjective, and what one person is afraid of may not invoke fear in another. The purpose of this study was to evaluate differences between men and women’s fear regarding unwanted contact and pursuit behaviors (i.e., stalking behaviors) and how men’s and women’s level of fear may differ depending on the sex of the perpetrator and the relationship they have to the perpetrator. Using a 2 (participant sex: male/female) x 2 (perpetrator sex: male/female) x 2 (perpetrator relationship: stranger/classmate), I asked college students to review 18 unique stalking-like behavioral situations and rate to what extent they would be fearful for their safety in each situation. Participants also rated the extent to which each situation warranted calling the authorities if a same-sex friend was the victim. Results indicated that there were sex differences in the reporting of the extent to which participants would feel fearful for their safety. Female participants were more fearful than male participants across the various stalking behaviors and participants rated their fear for their safety as greater in scenarios depicting a male perpetrator. There was no difference in fear ratings between the classmate and stranger conditions. Sex differences in the fear invoked by stalking may lead to some underestimating the true consequences of stalking victimization, and therefore more awareness of these consequences needs to be brought to both potential victims and perpetrators of stalking.
