The negative spillover effect of political harassment toward MPs: evidence from MPs personal staff

Harassment politicians face has direct consequences on their working reality, yet the indirect spillover effects on those who witness it remain underexplored. In this study, we examine how exposure to harassment against members of parliament (MPs) affects their personal staff. We theorize that witnessing harassment towards MPs creates negative spillover effects that discourage staffers from politics, and that these effects are gendered. Drawing on original survey data collected among personal staff of MPs in Germany and the UK (N = 922), our findings show that the majority of staffers witness harassment and are discouraged from politics as a result. Moreover, women, and particularly those working for women MPs, report higher levels of discouragement. Our results suggest that when political role models experience harassment, the established positive effect reverses: their example discourages rather than inspires.