Survey: A third of men admit to behavior in the past year that could qualify as sexual harassment

Approximately a third of men who work full time admitted to behavior in the past year that could be considered objectionable or sexual harassment, a survey by Morning Consult and The New York Times has found. The men admitted to behavior ranging from telling inappropriate jokes to treating a woman "badly" if she didn't respond in a desired way to sexual advances. Strikingly, while many men didn't view their behavior as harassment, a whole one in 25 men in the workforce acknowledged themselves as harassers.

"Most harassment is not by high-profile celebrities," explained a lead researcher on the subject, Louise Fitzgerald. "This is so common in places that are very far from the spotlight. This is endemic." And while much of the behavior confessed to by men in the survey doesn't legally qualify as sexual harassment, "in general, frequency is the most important component," Fitzgerald said.

The most common behavior identified was inappropriate jokes, with 19 percent of men self-reporting, followed by sexist remarks at 16 percent, and displaying, using, or distributing sexist materials next at 7 percent. Twelve percent of respondents said they engaged in at least three of the inappropriate behaviors described by the Times in the past year, or engaged in the same inappropriate behavior at least three times.

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In a separate study, almost half of all women said they'd experienced sexual harassment in some form at work. "Research finds that sexual harassment occurs when it is tolerated," said University of Connecticut psychology professor Vicki Magley — "that is, when policies are not enforced and when incidents are not taken seriously." Read the full results at The New York Times.