Postdoctoral Fellow
Center for Institutional Courage
Campbell, CA, United States
Sarah Harsey, PhD, is a sexual violence researcher. In 2021, she completed her doctorate in social psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Institutional Courage and a research associate at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
As a master’s student at the University of Oregon, she worked with Dr. Jennifer Freyd to produce the first empirical work on DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender), a defensive strategy used by individuals when they are held accountable for abusive or antisocial behavior. Their research on DARVO has found that this tactic is a powerful perpetrator tool used to undermine trust in victims’ narratives, particularly in the context of sexual violence. Other findings from this research have indicated that educating people about DARVO can mitigate its influence. Sarah continues to conduct empirical DARVO research with Dr. Freyd and other collaborators at the Center for Institutional Courage where they continue to identify novel findings related to DARVO's association with anti-social personality traits, sexual harassment perpetration, and guilt of wrongdoing.
Her second line of research investigates the role of sexual objectification in sexual violence. Her research positions sexual objectification as a precursor for prejudiced, anti-woman beliefs and as an underlying mechanism of men’s sexual aggression perpetration. Her thinking on these issues is informed by scholarly work from psychology, feminist studies, philosophy, and communication studies. Sarah’s dissertation, Following the script: Pornography’s associations with men’s sexual aggression through objectification and porn sex scripting, successfully tested a model of heterosexual men’s sexual aggression perpetration.
Disclosure information not submitted.
Saturday, April 15, 2023
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM US Eastern Time