Women's Perceptions of Situational Scenarios
Faculty Mentor
Dr. Amani El-Alayli
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
May 2025
End Date
May 2025
Location
PUB NCR
Primary Discipline of Presentation
Psychology
Abstract
Recently, the question of “would you rather be alone in the woods with a man or a bear?” has become popular on social media. This question, while seemingly unserious, has sparked discourse about women feeling unsafe around men. Previous research has found that women commonly feel unsafe in various scenarios, such as walking alone or walking at night. There are multiple reasons women may feel threatened by men, including previous negative experiences or perceptions of situational threat that cause negative attitudes towards men. Additionally, women have the tendency to favor other women over men in potentially threatening situations. In this study, we gave participants a set of hypothetical questions measuring their perceptions of potentially threatening encounters, as well as questions regarding personal experiences. We hypothesized that women who chose “bear” in the original question would continuously choose other encounters (e.g. hurricane, woman) over an unknown man. We also hypothesized that women with more negative perceptions of men would be more likely choose the bear. Overall, while most women chose the “bear” in the original question, there was not a clear preference for the other encounters (with the exception being another woman). Furthermore, women rated the man as having negative intentions, being more threatening, and producing more fear compared to a bear. The significance of this study is understanding the depth that women fear an unknown man and the factors that contribute to it.
Recommended Citation
Thomason, Jenna Jasmine and El-Alayli, Amani, "Women's Perceptions of Situational Scenarios" (2025). 2025 Symposium. 34.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2025/ps_2025/p2_2025/34
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Women's Perceptions of Situational Scenarios
PUB NCR
Recently, the question of “would you rather be alone in the woods with a man or a bear?” has become popular on social media. This question, while seemingly unserious, has sparked discourse about women feeling unsafe around men. Previous research has found that women commonly feel unsafe in various scenarios, such as walking alone or walking at night. There are multiple reasons women may feel threatened by men, including previous negative experiences or perceptions of situational threat that cause negative attitudes towards men. Additionally, women have the tendency to favor other women over men in potentially threatening situations. In this study, we gave participants a set of hypothetical questions measuring their perceptions of potentially threatening encounters, as well as questions regarding personal experiences. We hypothesized that women who chose “bear” in the original question would continuously choose other encounters (e.g. hurricane, woman) over an unknown man. We also hypothesized that women with more negative perceptions of men would be more likely choose the bear. Overall, while most women chose the “bear” in the original question, there was not a clear preference for the other encounters (with the exception being another woman). Furthermore, women rated the man as having negative intentions, being more threatening, and producing more fear compared to a bear. The significance of this study is understanding the depth that women fear an unknown man and the factors that contribute to it.
