Cognitive Complexity Training Reduced Gender Harassment in a Small Japanese Company†

We examined a training program for developing cognitive complexity (cognitive complexity training [CCT]) for reducing gender harassment using data of workers in an actual work environment. CCT was conducted with 20 Japanese employees. The participants were administered the Gender Harassment Scale consisting of two subscales: the Commission (e.g., marginal role expectations of women, such as serving coffee and making photocopies) and the Omission (e.g., exclusion of women from essential jobs and core roles). The participants responded to the Gender Harassment Scale before CCT, right after CCT, and at the 2-week follow-up assessment. The results indicated that participants' post-CCT and follow-up Commission scores significantly improved compared to their pre-CCT scores.