‘It’s people with high hostile sexism scores’: Sophia Smith Galer explains the psychology behind cyberflashing

The journalist and author debunks sex myths on the latest episode of Millennial Love

Sophia Smith Galer has offered her insight into the psychology behind people who send unsolicited sexual images in the latest episode of The Independent’s podcast, Millennial Love.

Speaking during a live recording of the podcast, the TikToker and award-winning reporter explained that there’s a certain type of person who is inclined to be a cyberflashing perpetrator and why the name itself is misleading.

“Cyberflashing gives the idea it’s exhibitionism,” she said. “Research has found it’s a minority of people doing it to be an exhibitionist.

“They’re doing it because they want to solicit sexual contact. So it’s a lot darker than the phrase ‘cyberflashing’ gives.”

Smith Galer went on to explain some of the research that has been conducted into cyberflashing and catcalling and the people doing it.

“When they look at profiles and who is more likely to catcall and who is more likely to send an unsolcited d*** pic, it’s the same thing time and time again,” she said.

“It’s people who rank highly with high hostile sexism scores. which is a kind of rating system that researchers in the psychology space will use.

“So how do you get to the root of that and stop people ranking highly with hostile sexism scores?”

In addition to cyberflashing and sexual harassment, other issues discussed in the episode include virginity, virility, porn, and the impact of the insufficient sex education that the majority of millennials received in schools.

You can watch the full episode of Millennial Love here.