video games are promoting violence and sexism essay

Sounding out Sexism in Video Games

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Video games influence sexist attitudes

There are distinct similarities in the way women are portrayed in many popular video games. Female characters are typically attractive, scantily clad, appear in sexually suggestive ways and generally have limited roles.

Douglas Gentile, a professor of psychology at Iowa State University, says these images send a powerful message that can influence the underlying attitudes of gamers. According to a new study of more than 13,000 adolescents, Gentile and a team of French researchers found a link between video game exposure and sexism. The research is published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology .

"Many different aspects of life can influence sexist attitudes. It was surprising to find a small but significant link between game play and sexism. Video games are not intended to teach sexist views, but most people don't realize how attitudes can shift with practice," Gentile said. "Nonetheless, much of our learning is not conscious and we pick up on subtle cues without realizing it."

Researchers did not look solely at video games, but also measured the influence of television and religion. Gentile was not surprised to find the relationship between religion and sexism was three times higher than video games. This is likely because many religions have historically taken a traditional view of gender roles, he said. TV was unrelated to sexism after controlling for religion. Gentile says this may be evidence of the growing number and variety of female character roles on TV compared to 20 years ago.

Practice makes perfect

Repeated exposure to media influences how we perceive and understand social realities, according to George Gerbner's cultivation theory. Gentile says that influence increases with repeated exposure. The 13,520 adolescents, ages 11 to 19, surveyed for the study, spent approximately three hours a day watching TV and nearly two hours playing video games, on average.

Researchers did not measure the level of sexist content in the games played. However, in the paper they cite previous studies that found more than 80 percent of female characters in video game magazines are portrayed as sexualized, scantily clad or a vision of beauty. More than a quarter of the characters fit all three categories.

To measure sexism, researchers asked participants if they agreed or disagreed with the following statement: "A woman is made mainly for making and raising children." Participants who spent more time playing video games were more likely to agree.

"If you repeatedly 'practice' various decisions and choices in games, this practice can influence your attitudes and behaviors outside of the gaming world," Gentile said.

Gentile used the example of the game "Grand Theft Auto," which gives players few options of how to interact with female characters -- "you can pay them for sex, you can look at them or you can kill them," Gentile said. "This is an extremely limited view of the value of women."

Findings true regardless of culture

Researchers controlled for gender and socioeconomics. However, when analyzing the factors separately, sexism was higher among men with a lower socioeconomic status. Participants attended schools in Lyon and Grenoble, France -- two cities in the second largest and wealthiest region of France.

Although cultural differences often influence our attitudes, Gentile says the results are applicable across cultures because this study is focused on learned behaviors, not general cultural beliefs. How we learn and detect cues is the same regardless of culture, he said.

The researchers say it's important to understand that there are many things -- religion, family, education, socioeconomic status -- that influence sexist views. Gentile says video games are not the most important factor, and it is interesting that they are related to sexism at all.

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Story Source:

Materials provided by Iowa State University . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• laurent Bègue, Elisa Sarda, Douglas A. Gentile, Clementine Bry and Sebastian Roche. Video Games Exposure and Sexism in a Representative Sample of Adolescents . Frontiers in Psychology , 2017 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00466

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Acting like a Tough Guy: Violent-Sexist Video Games, Identification with Game Characters, Masculine Beliefs, & Empathy for Female Violence Victims

Alessandro gabbiadini.

1 University of Milano Bicocca, Department of Psychology, Milan, Italy

Luca Andrighetto

2 University of Genova, Department of Education, Genova, Italy

Chiara Volpato

Brad j. bushman.

3 The Ohio State University, School of Communication, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America

4 VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Conceived and designed the experiments: AG PR LA CV BJB. Performed the experiments: AG. Analyzed the data: AG PR LA. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AG PR LA BJB. Wrote the paper: AG PR LA BJB. Theoretical interpretation of results: CV.

Associated Data

All relevant data are within the paper. All the original data points are available from the Open Science Framework public database: https://osf.io/hu85t/ .

Empathy—putting oneself in another’s shoes—has been described as the “social glue” that holds society together. This study investigates how exposure to sexist video games can decrease empathy for female violence victims. We hypothesized that playing violent-sexist video games would increase endorsement of masculine beliefs, especially among participants who highly identify with dominant and aggressive male game characters. We also hypothesized that the endorsement of masculine beliefs would reduce empathy toward female violence victims. Participants ( N = 154) were randomly assigned to play a violent-sexist game, a violent-only game, or a non-violent game. After gameplay, measures of identification with the game character, traditional masculine beliefs, and empathy for female violence victims were assessed. We found that participants’ gender and their identification with the violent male video game character moderated the effects of the exposure to sexist-violent video games on masculine beliefs. Our results supported the prediction that playing violent-sexist video games increases masculine beliefs, which occurred for male (but not female) participants who were highly identified with the game character. Masculine beliefs, in turn, negatively predicted empathic feelings for female violence victims. Overall, our study shows who is most affected by the exposure to sexist-violent video games, and why the effects occur. (200 words)

Introduction

“Empathy is about standing in someone else's shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eyes. Not only is empathy hard to outsource and automate, but it makes the world a better place.”

—Daniel H. Pink, author

Empathy is an emotional response that corresponds to the feelings of another person, such as feeling distress when seeing another person in distress. Empathy does indeed make the world “a better place” to live and it is one of the best predictors of prosocial behavior [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. Numerous studies have shown that playing violent video games reduces feelings of empathy and makes people numb to the pain and suffering of others (for a meta-analytic review see [ 4 ]).

People feel empathy for other individuals, not for objects. In some video games, such as the very popular Grand Theft Auto ( GTA ) games, female characters are treated as sex objects rather than as individuals worthy of respect. GTA main male characters are always depicted as hyper-masculine, dominant, and aggressive men. In contrast, the female characters are portrayed as sexual objects—usually prostitutes or pole-dancers—who are peripheral to the game narrative and whose sole purpose is to entertain the main male characters [ 5 ]. For example, after paying a prostitute for sex, players can kill her and get their money back. Rather than being punished for such behaviors, players are often rewarded (e.g., through points, extra health to their character, etc.).

Although sex-typed video game characters in the virtual world might affect perceptions of men and women in the real world, there is a dearth of research on this topic. In one study, male college students who saw photos of sex-typed male and female video game characters (vs. professional men and women) were more tolerant of sexual harassment against a female college student by a male professor [ 6 , 7 ] In another study, female college students who embodied sexualized video game characters (vs. non-sexualized game characters) were more likely to view themselves as a sexual object, which in turn increased their acceptance of rape myths [ 5 ]. In a third study, both male and female participants were more aggressive after playing a violent game as male character than as a female character [ 8 ]. Yet, none of these studies assessed the role of individual differences (i.e., moderators) and/or underlying mechanisms (i.e., mediators) of the obtained effects. The present research fills these important gaps in the literature by testing a moderator variable (i.e., identification with the violent-sexist video game character and gender), and a mediator variable (i.e., masculine beliefs) of the effects of exposure to violent sexist video games on empathy for female violence victims

Who is Most Affected: The Moderating Role of Identification with the Game Character

Previous research has largely ignored moderators of the effects of violent-sexist video games on players. The notion of identification with a virtual avatar, as an online self-representation, has been investigated in past research [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]. In particular, some works have shown that when experiencing a virtual world, players are likely to establish a connection between themselves and their game character, and even imagine themselves to be that character [ 12 , 13 , 11 ]. For example, participants in one study [ 13 ] played either a first-person shooter war game or a racing game and then completed a measure of automatic attitudes using the Implicit Association Test [ 14 ]. The researchers found that participants who played a war game had stronger associations between military-related concepts and the self, whereas participants who played a racing game had stronger associations between racing-related concepts and the self. These results suggest an automatic shift in players’ implicit self-perceptions. Identification with violent video game characters can also influence behavior. For example, one study found that the more boys identified with violent game characters, the more aggressive they were after the game was turned off [ 11 ].

Building on these previous findings, in the present work we tested whether the identification with the game character would interact with exposure to violent sexist games in predicting a reduction in empathic feelings toward female violence victims. More specifically, we expected that players who highly identified with violent sexist game character would display a greater endorsement of masculine beliefs. Furthermore, we expected that the interactive effects of exposure to violent sexist games and identification with the game character on masculine beliefs would be stronger for male (compared to female) players. Drawing from this theoretical framework, we propose that identification with the game character and participants’ gender could play a key-moderating role in the effects of violent-sexist games on empathy for female violence victims.

Why the Effect Might Occur: The Mediating Role of Masculine Beliefs

Previous research has largely ignored mediators of the effects of violent-sexist video games on players. One scholar notes that the video game culture assumes that the default player is male, which can lead to the maintenance of masculinity in the virtual world [ 15 ]. Another scholar proposed that adolescent and young adult males often use video game spaces to explore their masculine identity [ 16 ]. Masculinity refers to normative beliefs about how men are expected to think, feel, and behave [ 17 ]. Traditionally, men are considered to be aggressive, dominant, competitive, strong, powerful, and independent [ 17 , 18 ]. Theories of hegemonic masculinity assert that modern media convey myths about male dominance and female submission in order to support a patriarchal social structure [ 19 ]. In other words, media stereotypes construct a stylized view of masculinity and femininity that influences the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of those who consume these media. In the mediated world, men are expected to control their feelings in order to be less vulnerable and more powerful. Emotions such as fear and empathy are prohibited because “real men” are not supposed to express these feelings [ 20 , 18 ]. However, not all emotions are prohibited. Feelings of anger and rage are encouraged in “real men” because they are associated with high status and power.

The portrayal of men in the media as socially powerful and physically violent reinforces assumptions about how men and boys should act in society, as well as how they should treat women and girls [ 21 ]. Exposure to sex-typed media characters can have real world consequence. For example, one study found that television programs that depict women as sex objects increased the likelihood of sexual harrassment [ 22 ]. A meta-analytic review found that masculine beliefs were positively associated with aggression against women [ 23 ]. In general, males are more likely than females to agree with myths and beliefs supportive of violence against women, show less empathy for female violence victims, and consider violence against females to be a less serious problem (see [ 24 ]). We propose that the exposure to violent and sexist video games could reinforce masculine beliefs, hampering the ability for players to feel empathy for female violence victims. Because masculine norms are strongly reinforced in GTA video games, we propose that GTA gameplay will increase masculine beliefs. Masculine beliefs, in turn, are expected to be negatively related to empathy for female violence victims.

The present study investigates the short-term effects of playing violent-sexist video games on empathy for female violence victims. We consider identification with the game character as one possible moderator, expecting larger effects of the game content for participants who strongly identify with the hyper-masculine, violent, male game character in GTA . Further, we proposed participants’ gender as second possible moderator, assuming that the effects of the game content would be stronger for male participants than for female participants. As a possible mediator, we propose that violent-sexist games reduce empathy for female violence victims by increasing masculine beliefs. Combining these hypotheses, we propose a conditional process model ([ 25 ]; see Fig 1 ). In this model, we predict that violent-sexist video games will increase masculine beliefs, which in turn will be negatively related to empathic feelings for female violence victims, especially among male participants who display higher levels of identification with the violent male game character. To test whether these effects are specific to violent-sexist video games, we also included violent-only video games in our design, as well as nonviolent (control) video games.

Materials and Method

Participants.

Participants were 154 Italian high school student volunteers (43.4% male, 15 to 20 years old, (M = 16.82, SD = 1.24). The study was reviewed and approved by University of Milano-Bicocca ethics committee (Prot. N. 0024403/12) before the study began. Both the high school and the university review board gave their written consent for the study; parents' consent was collected through an official written communication sent by the office school management before the beginning of the data collection. Parental informed consent and participant written assent rates were both 100%.

Participants were told that investigators were testing cognitive abilities in order to develop a new video game that would be distributed in the near future. After providing basic demographic information (age, nationality, gender), participants were randomly assigned to play a violent-sexist video game (i.e., GTA San Andreas or GTA Vice City ; both rated 18+ for violent and sexual content), a violent-only video game (i.e., Half Life 1 or Half Life 2 ; both rated 16+ for violent action, but no sexual content or violence toward women), or a non-violent video game (i.e., Dream Pinball 3D or Q . U . B . E . 2 ; both rated 10+ with no violent or sexual content).

Half-Life is a first-person shooter video game where the player has the same visual perspective as the character. In both games used in this study ( Half Life 1 , Half Life 2 ), players fight in a post-apocalyptic future. Although there is a female co-protagonist (Alyx), she is portrayed in a non-sexual manner. In contrast, all female characters in GTA are portrayed in a sexual manner. By selecting video games that use different representation of women, it is possible to differentiate between sexual violence exposure (i.e., GTA ) and exposure to violent games not involving sexism exposure (i.e., Half Life ).

Dream Pinball 3D is a classic pinball simulation game featuring different tables to play on, while Q . U . B . E . 2 is a first-person puzzler in which the player has to solve an array of physics-based challenges.

For all the three video game conditions, participants first watched the introductory video of the game for about one minute, in order to familiarize themselves with the game. Next, they practiced by playing a preselected scene for 5 minutes. During the practice session, participants were taught how to control their character and how to interact with the game world. When the practice session ended, participants played the game alone for 25 minutes

For all the three games, participants were asked to pursue a specific goal or mission. We attempted to keep the mission as similar as possible for the violent-sexist and the violent-only games. For violent-sexist games (both GTA San Andreas and GTA Vice City ), the mission was to destroy a rival criminal gang. Both missions started in a private-club, and then move through the streets of the city. During the gameplay, players were frequently exposed to female prostitutes and lap dancers; indeed, those are common elements in all the episodes of the GTA saga. For the violent-only games (both Half Life 1 and Half Life 2 ), players were asked to complete a mission whose goal was to destroy a group of enemies. The game’s action in both Half life 1 and Half life 2, takes place in a suburban area of the city, and then moves to a few abandoned buildings. For the neutral control games (both Dream Pinball 3D and Q . U . B . E . 2 ), the mission was simply to accumulate as many points as possible.

All games in all conditions were played at an intermediate level to avoid boredom (from the game being too easy) and frustration (from the game being too difficult).

After gameplay, participants completed some video game manipulation checks. They were first asked to report the title of the video game they played, rated how violent, involving, and exciting they thought the game was (1 = not at all to 7 = extremely ), and rated how sexualized the female figures in the game were (1 = not at all to 7 = extremely ). Given the popularity of the GTA series among young people, we also measured how frequently they played the video game they were randomly assigned to play in this experiment (0 = never played before to 7 = every day ).

One moderator was participant gender. As a possible second moderator, we measured how much participants identified with their video game character using the 6-item (e.g., “When I am playing, it feels as if I am my character” and “My character is an extension of myself”; 1 = completely disagree to 7 = completely agree ) of the Player Identification Scale [ 26 ] (Cronbach α = .92).

As a possible mediator, we measured masculine beliefs. We used 12 items (e.g., “Boys should be encouraged to find a means of demonstrating physical prowess” and “It is OK for a guy to use any and all means to ‘convince’ a girl to have sex”; 1 = completely disagree to 7 = completely agree ) from the revised Male Role Norms Inventory (MRNI-R; Cronbach α = .78) [ 27 ] Levant, Rankin, Williams, Hasan, & Smalley, 2010).

The dependent variable was how much empathy participants felt toward female violence victims. When people become desensitized to violence, they become numb to the pain and suffering of violence victims [ 28 ]. Participants were shown one of two photos (randomly determined) of an adolescent girl who had been physically beaten by an adolescent boy (see Figure A and Figure B in S1 Appendix ). Participants rated whether they felt sympathetic, moved, compassionate, tender, warm, softhearted, disregarded (reverse-coded) and indifferent (reverse-coded) (see [ 29 ]) for her (1 = not at all to 7 = very much ; Cronbach α = .83).

About 2 weeks later, following the completion of the study, all participants were fully debriefed. No participants expressed suspicion about the true purpose of the study. In particular, none of the participants reported a link between video games and gender-based violence or sexism. The experimenter then disclosed the purpose of the study, and discussed the potentially harmful short-terms effects of violent and sexist video games on players. A group discussion followed.

Preliminary Results

Stimulus sampling.

To increase the generalizability of our findings, we used two video games of each type and two photos of interpersonal violence [ 30 ]. Independent-sample t -tests found no significant differences between the two different violent-sexist games, between the two different violent-only games, or between the two nonviolent games on identification with the main video game character, masculine beliefs, or empathy for female violence victims ( ps >.12). Thus, the two violent-sexist games were combined, the two violent-only games were combined, and the two nonviolent games were combined for subsequent analyses.

There were no significant differences between the two photos of the adolescent boy beating the adolescent girl on how much empathy participants felt for her ( p s>.10). Thus, the data from two photos were combined for subsequent analyses.

Video game manipulation check items

Five items were included to assess whether the video game manipulation was successful. First, we checked the name of the game reported by each participant. All participants correctly named the video game they played. We then tested whether the violent video games were rated to be more violent than the nonviolent games. A one-way between subjects ANOVA found a significant difference in violence ratings for the video games, F (2,150) = 182.16, p < .001, η 2 = .70. Post-hoc comparisons using Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) test indicated that the violent-sexist games ( M = 5.11, SD = 1.23) and the violent-only games ( M = 4.09, SD = 1.25) had significantly higher violence ratings than the nonviolent games ( M = 1.20, SD = .53), d s = 4.13 and 3.01, respectively. However, the violent-sexist games also had higher violence ratings than the violence-only games ( M = 5.11, SD = 1.23; d = .82). Then, we checked ratings of familiarity. A one-way between-subjects ANOVA found a significant difference in frequency of play for the video games, F (2,152) = 4.28, p = .015, η 2 = .053. Post-hoc test revealed significantly that violent-sexist games had higher frequency of play ( M = 2.10, SD = 1.54; p = .013) than both violent-only ( M = 1.36, SD = 1.31) and neutral games ( M = 1.58, SD = 1.03). Thus, violence ratings and frequency of play were included as covariates in all analyses. No statistically significant differences between violent-sexist ( M = 4.18, SD = 1.56), violent-only ( M = 3.94, SD = 1.42), and neutral games ( M = 3.82, SD = 1.76) were found for game involvement, F (2,151) = 0.70, p >.49. Moreover, no significant differences between violent-sexist ( M = 3.71, SD = 1.55), violent-only games ( M = 3.65, SD = 1.68), and neutral games ( M = 3.18, SD = 1.58) were found of game excitement, F (2,151) = 1.67, p >.19. Finally, we tested whether female characters were rated as more sexualized in the violent-sexist video games than in the violent-only games. As expected, female characters in the GTA games were rated to be more sexualized ( M = 5.88, SD = 1.43) than female characters in the Half Life games ( M = 2.16, SD = 1.31), t (101) = 13.67, p < .001, d = 2.72. Taken together, these results suggest that the video game manipulation was successful.

Primary Results

Since playing violent video games that are not necessarily sexist have been already shown to reduce feelings of empathy, we contrast coded the type of video game as follow: +1 = violent-sexist games, 0 = violent-only games, -1 = non-violent games. Data analysis revealed that the type of video game was positively associated with masculine beliefs ( r = .203, p = .011). Participant gender (1 = male vs. 0 = female) was associated with both masculine beliefs ( r = .507, p < .001) and identification with the game character ( r = .241, p = .003). Mean comparison revealed that participant gender impacted the masculine beliefs such that male participants showed greater endorsement of masculine beliefs ( M = 3.23, SD = 0.82) than female did ( M = 2.44, SD = 0.52; t (152) = 7.25; p < .001; d = 1.15). Participant gender also influenced the identification with the game character such that boys identified more with the game character ( M = 4.63, SD = 1.20) than girls ( M = 3.96, SD = 1.45; t (152) = 3.05; p = .003; d = 0.50). Further, the level of identification with the game character was positively associated with masculine beliefs ( r = .197, p = .014). Finally, masculine beliefs were negatively associated with empathy for female violence victims ( r = -.348, p < .001; see Table 1 ).

* p < .05.

** p < .01.

Type of video game was coded +1 = violent-sexist games, 0 = violent-only games, and -1 = non-violent games.

We conducted a series of one-way between-subjects ANOVAs to test the effects of type of video game played on three dependent variables: (1) identification with the game character, (2) masculine beliefs, and (3) empathy for female violence victims. The first ANOVA found a significant effect for type of video game played on identification with the game character, F (2,152) = 6.06, p = .003, η 2 = .073. Post-hoc comparisons using Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) test indicated that participants who played a violent game identified with the character more than did participants who played a neutral game ( d = 0.62, p = .003) or a violent-sexist game ( d = 0.57, p = .04). No differences were found between the neutral and the violent-sexist games ( p = .67).

The second ANOVA found a significant effect for type of video game played on masculine beliefs F (2,152) = 3.33, p = .038, η 2 = .004. Post-hoc tests indicated that participants who played a violent-sexist game reported higher masculine beliefs than did participants who played a neutral game ( d = 0.50, p = .03). No statistically differences were found between violent-sexist games and violent-only games ( p = .24) or between violent-only and neutral games ( p = .57) on masculine beliefs.

The third ANOVA found no significant effect for type of video game played on empathy for female violence victims ( p = .31). Descriptive statistics by experimental conditions for each dependent variable are reported in Table 2 .

Note . Different letters indicate means statistically differences between experimental conditions.

To test our predictions, we then conducted a conditional process model by using the PROCESS macro Model 11 for SPSS with 1000 bootstrapping samples [ 24 ]. In this model, the type of video game played was entered as predictor, the identification with the game character as a moderator, masculine beliefs as the mediator, and empathy toward female violence victims as the outcome variable. We predicted that participants’ gender would moderate the effects of the identification with the game character on the relationship between the type of video game and masculinity beliefs. (see Fig 1 ). Participant age, video game violence rating, and frequency of video game play were also included as covariates.

Considering the moderated path from the type of video game to masculine beliefs, analyses revealed that the main effects of type of video game played, identification with the game character, participant gender, participant age, and frequency of gameplay were not significant ( b s < .56, t s (140)<1.47, p s >.14), whereas the main effect of violence rating was significant ( b = -.10, SE = .047, t (140) = -2.07, p = .039). The two-way interaction between type of video game played and participant gender was significant ( b = -1.05, SE = .45, t (140) = -2.29, p = .023), whereas the interactions between type of video game played and identification with the game character ( b = .02, SE = .065, t (140) = .32, p = .74) and between participant gender and identification with the game character ( b = -.03, SE = .083, t (140) = .36, p = .71) were both nonsignificant. Crucially, all these effects were qualified by our predicted 3-way interaction between type of video game played, participant gender, and identification with the game character on masculine beliefs ( b = .26, SE = .10, t (140) = 2.55, p = .011; see Table 3 ).

b = unstandardized beta weight

SE = standard error

* p < .05

*** p < .001.

For male participants, simple slope analyses showed a significant positive relationship between identification with the game character and masculine beliefs for males who played with a violent-sexist game ( b = .32, SE = .12, t (62) = 2.65, p = .009), but not for males who played violent-only game ( b = .095, SE = .078, t (62) = 1.21, p = .23) or for males who played a nonviolent game ( b = -.13, SE = .97, t (62) = -1.33, p = .18; see Fig 2 ). For female participants, there was no significant relationship between identification with the game character and masculine beliefs in any of the three video game conditions ( b s < .082, t s (76)<1.81, p s > .075).

The difference between violent-sexist game players and violent-only and nonviolent game players is significant for values of identification with video game characters greater than 4.2931.

Then, considering the path from masculine beliefs (i.e., the mediator variable) to empathy for female violence victims (i.e., the outcome variable), analyses revealed that masculine beliefs negatively impacted the dependent variable ( b = -.45, SE = .11, t (146) = -4.17, p < .001).

As first support of our moderated mediational hypothesis, we found a significant indirect effect of the type of video game on empathy for female violence victims via increased masculine beliefs for males [-0.1846 (95% CI = -0.3984 to -0.0410)] but not for females [-0.0406 (95% CI = -0.1318 to 0.0097)] who played with a violent-sexist game. No effect was found for males [-0.0486 (95% CI = -0.1733 to 0.0363)] or females [-0.0294 (95% CI = -0.0799 to 0.0041)] in the violent-only game condition. Similarly, no indirect effect of type of video game on empathy was found for males [-0.0874 (95% CI = -0.0134 to 0.3363)] or females [-0.0181 (95% CI = -0.0783 to 0.286)] in the nonviolent game condition. Further, conditional indirect effects of type of video game on empathy for female violence victims were significant only for males in the violent-sexist game condition at values of identification with the game character greater than 4.2583 [-0.1920 (95% CI = -0.4668 to -0.0492] (see Fig 2 ). These results suggest that violent-sexist games decreased empathy for female violence victims for boys who strongly identified with the violent game character, and did so by increasing masculine beliefs.

The present research is in line with previous studies showing that violent video games can desensitize individuals to real-life violence [ 4 , 31 ], including violence against women [ 6 ]. More important, it moves beyond the question of whether violent games are harmful per se to address the important questions of who is most likely to be harmed by violent-sexist video games, and through what mechanism does the harm occur.

A possible answer to the “who” question is players that identify with the violent-sexist game character. Results support the prediction that playing violent-sexist video games increases masculine beliefs and decreases empathy for female violence victims, especially for boys and young men who highly identified with the male game character. Previous research has shown that video games are especially likely to increase aggression among players who identify with violent game characters [ 11 ], and that a reduced empathy is one of the major predictor for aggression against women [ 32 ]. Exposure to media violence is one of the many factors that can influence empathy levels [ 33 ]. Violent video games, in particular, might reduce empathy levels because players are linked to a violent character. If the video game is a first person shooter, players have the same visual perspective as the killer. If the video game is third person, players control the actions of the violent character from a more distant visual perspective. Because they are forced to adopt the visual perspective of the perpetrator, it is difficult for players to put themselves in the shoes of the victim. In general, we argue that it is important to take individual differences into account when considering violent video game effects (see also [ 34 ]).

A possible answer to the “why” question (i.e., through which mechanism) is masculine beliefs. Results showed that masculine beliefs were negatively related to empathic feelings for female violence victims. To our knowledge, the present research is the first to elucidate the underlying mechanism that links violent video games playing to desensitization of violence against women.

Speaking to the specificity of our effects, it is noteworthy that type of video game played directly affected identification with the game character and masculine beliefs, whereas it did not directly affect empathy for female violence victims. However, we found an indirect conditional effect of violent-sexist games (vs. only-violent vs. neutral) on empathy, which consistently emerged through the mediation of masculine beliefs and the moderation of identification with the game character. Accordingly, the effects were statistically significant only for highly identified male participants who played the GTA games, which are both violent and sexist. We found no significant effects for violent-only or nonviolent video games on masculine beliefs or empathic feelings. As in previous research (e.g., [ 8 ]), gender differences in identification with the game character emerged (i.e., males identified more with the male game character than females did). In addition, males had higher masculine beliefs than females did. This finding can be interpreted in light of the theoretical framework of identification with a virtual character. Video game identification has been considered as an altered experience of the self, in which players may come to perceive themselves to actually be their game character, thus assuming the character’s point of view [ 13 ]. This process has been described also as “an imaginative process” involving cognitive, emotional, and motivational dimensions ([ 35 ], p. 250). The player shares the character’s perspective (cognitive), feelings (emotional), and goals (motivational) [ 35 , 36 , 37 ]. Furthermore, identification with a virtual character has been found to be greater in video games with an articulate plot, in which the assigned role fosters a sense of ''vicarious self-perception'' [ 38 ]. This is the case with GTA, in which players assume the role of a man who is aggressive, misogynistic, cruel, and greedy. Since that, it is not surprising that we found that male players who identified with the main video game character ended up adopting his point of view more easily than female players, as indicated by an increase in masculine beliefs and a decrease in feelings of empathy for female violence victims.

This investigation of virtual representations of males and females in video games is extremely relevant, because video games have distinct features compared to other forms of media [ 5 ] and different effects on males and females. Unlike images in traditional media, game characters are designed to respond to a user’s actions [ 39 ], which can promote a powerful experience that goes beyond passive media consumption. Often these interactions mirror communication in the physical world, and users often react to virtual situations in natural and social ways [ 39 , 5 ].

Limitation and Future Research

Our study, like all studies, has limitations. Few main limitations stand out. First, we used a self-report measure of empathy. Future research should consider other measures of empathy that are less subject to demand characteristics, such as physiological measures (e.g., heart rate, skin conductance).

Second, we examined only two moderators (i.e., participant gender and identification with the game character) and only one mediator (i.e., masculine beliefs). Future research should examine other possible moderators (e.g., trait aggressiveness, social dominance orientation) and mediators (e.g., dehumanization, women objectification; see [ 22 ]).

Third, our study was based on a short exposure to violent-sexist video games (i.e., about 25 minutes). Although it is impressive that we were able to obtain significant effects after such a brief exposure, we do not know what the consequences would be for longer exposures. If the effects occur after only 25 minutes of play in a laboratory experiment, they are probably magnified after longer periods of play outside the lab. Indeed, individuals usually play video games for much longer periods of time (from 8 hours to 13 hours per week; [ 40 , 41 ]). Previous experimental research has shown that the effects of violent video games can accumulate and get larger over time, at least over a three-day period [ 41 ].

Fourth, we did not measure sexist thoughts after a certain amount of time, so we cannot ascertain if and how long the observed effects last. However, previous experimental research has shown that the effects of violent video games can last at least 24 hours after gameplay if players ruminate about the content of the game [ 42 , 43 ].

Fifth, GTA is a well-known game, and the simple act of playing it could have primed masculine and sexist thoughts regardless of the actual gameplay. Indeed, media audiences often make their assessment of characters and narratives using existing schemes rather than actual on-screen action/content [ 44 ]. Thus, future studies should test whether similar effects are obtained for less well-known sexist-violent videogames than GTA . Furthermore, future studies should test whether the empathy reduction linked with violent-sexist video games is specific to female violence victims or whether it extends to male violence victims. Future research should also examine video games with female characters that are not depicted in a sexualized manner.

Sixth, we did not actually test whether feelings of empathy mediate aggression against women. As a first step, this study focused on empathy for female violence victims. Future studies should explore whether violent-sexist video games also increase aggression against women.

One of the best predictors of aggression against girls and women is lack of empathy [ 32 ]. The present research shows that violent-sexist video games such as GTA reduce empathy for female violence victims, at least in the short-term. This reduction in empathy partly occurs because video games such as GTA increase masculine beliefs, such as beliefs that “real men” are tough, dominant, and aggressive. Our effects were especially pronounced among male participants who strongly identified with the misogynistic game characters. Daniel Pink was correct in noting that empathy makes the world a better place. Unfortunately, it appears that GTA might make the world a worse place for females.

Supporting Information

S1 appendix.

Participants indicated how much pain they thought the girl was feeling, and how much they thought she was suffering (1 = not at all to 7 = very much ; Cronbach α = .79).

Acknowledgments

The authors declare that they have no competing interests or any business relationships with the manufacturers of the video games and products cited in the text. This work is supported by PRIN (2012)-20123X2PXT_003 grant to the first and the third authors. We want to thank “G. Maironi da Ponte” high school institute, especially Prof. Mazzotti and Mr. Maffeis, for supporting us in the data collection process.

Funding Statement

This work is supported by PRIN (2012)-20123X2PXT_003 grant to the first and the third authors, provided by MIUR, Ministry of Education, Universities and Research of Italy.

Data Availability

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Video games exposure and sexism in a representative sample of adolescents.

• 1 LIP-PC2S, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
• 2 Department of Psychology, Iowa State University, Ames, LA, USA
• 3 LIP-PC2S, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Chambéry, France
• 4 CNRS, PACTE, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France

Research has indicated that many video games are saturated with stereotypes of women and that these contents may cultivate sexism. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between video game exposure and sexism for the first time in a large and representative sample. Our aim was also to measure the strength of this association when two other significant and well-studied sources of sexism, television exposure and religiosity, were also included in a multivariate model. A representative sample of 13520 French youth aged 11–19 years completed a survey measuring weekly video game and television exposure, religiosity, and sexist attitudes toward women. Controlling for gender and socioeconomic level, results showed that video game exposure and religiosity were both related to sexism. Implications of these results for future research on sexism in video games are discussed.

Introduction

The media are a powerful socializing agent of the modern era. Video games represent one of the most popular forms of media entertainment around the world, with a global market of more than 90 billion dollars in 2015. Part of the popularity may be due to the appeal of masculinity: sales are highest in teen and mature games with box art depicting non-central sexualized female characters ( Near, 2013 ). The depiction and value granted to women is biased in traditional forms of media such as children’s books, magazines and TV ( Signorielli and Bacue, 1999 ; Scharrer, 2014 ), and there is no obvious exception with new digital media. It has even been argued that some of the most blatantly sexist representation of women is found today in video games ( Dill and Thill, 2007 ; Downs and Smith, 2010 ; Scharrer, 2014 ). However, while the proofs of biased depictions in video games showing women as passive beings, kidnapped princess to rescue or sex objects to win or to use are numerous and indisputably recorded ( Provenzo, 1991 ; Beasley and Collins Standley, 2002 ; Burgess et al., 2007 ; Dill and Thill, 2007 ; Near, 2013 ), their effect on gamers’ stereotypes of women remains debated ( Breuer et al., 2015 ) despite some preliminary experimental demonstrations ( Dill et al., 2008 ; Behm-Morawitz and Mastro, 2009 ; Fox and Bailenson, 2009 ; Yao et al., 2010 ; Driesmans et al., 2015 ; Gabbiadini et al., 2016 ).

The present study used a large representative sample of adolescents to analyze the link between video game exposure and the endorsement of sexist attitudes toward women. We also compare this link to two other consequential and well-studied influences on sexist attitudes. The first is television exposure, which has been shown as a major factor involved in sexist depiction of females ( Herrett-Skjellum and Allen, 1996 ; Morgan and Shanahan, 1997 ; Signorielli and Bacue, 1999 ; Oppliger, 2007 ). The other important factor is religiosity, which has a significant influence on stereotyped gender role beliefs ( Wilson, 1978 ; Morgan, 1987 ; Kirkpatrick, 1993 ; Hunsberger et al., 1999 ; Glick et al., 2002 ; Meghan Burn and Busso, 2005 ; see, however, Read, 2003 ). The introduction of these influential additional determinants of sexism will provide us with the opportunity to have a more precise and embedded view of the specific relationship between video games exposure and sexism among adolescents.

Representation of Gender in Video Game

Since their origins, video games have tended to portray women as characters needing help or holding passive or instrumental roles ( Downs and Smith, 2010 ; Near, 2013 ; Stermer and Burkley, 2015 ). In video game magazines, over 80% of female characters are portrayed according to three types: sexualized, scantily clad, or vision of beauty, and over a quarter fit in all three categories ( Dill and Thill, 2007 ). While it appears that women are generally underrepresented in video games ( Scharrer, 2004 ; Dill et al., 2005 ; Williams et al., 2009 ; Downs and Smith, 2010 ), they are frequently presented as attractive beings ( Scharrer, 2004 ), sex objects ( Dietz, 1998 ; Burgess et al., 2007 ; Jansz and Martis, 2007 ; Downs and Smith, 2010 ) and in sexually suggestive ways ( Ivory, 2006 ). In one of the first extensive content analyses of top selling games, Dietz (1998) showed that in over a quarter of games women were depicted as sex objects. Other more recent content analysis showed that women are often displayed with revealing clothing or at least partially nude ( Beasley and Collins Standley, 2002 ; Miller and Summers, 2007 ; Downs and Smith, 2010 ). For example, in a systematic analysis of 47 randomly selected games, female characters were more likely to wear low-cut clothing and bare arms than males. Of the 71 female characters for whom cleavage could be seen on, 2.82%, were considered “flat” by independent judges, 56.34%, were considered “average,” and 40.85%, were considered “voluptuous” ( Beasley and Collins Standley, 2002 ). Moreover, while male characters have generally normal sizes in video games (compared to actual sizes of adults), female characters are depicted as thinner ( Martins et al., 2011 ).

According to Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory ( Bandura, 2001 ), symbolic representations of the world are learned through exposure to models. People rely on such acquired knowledge structures to perceive others and interact with them. Developments in media psychology suggest that the digital representation of the female body is not a mere innocent succession of entertaining polychromatic polygons on a screen, but can change users’ attitudes and behaviors off-screen ( Yee and Bailenson, 2007 ; Fox and Bailenson, 2009 ; Blascovitch and Mc Call, 2014 ). Previous theoretical developments suggest that users learn long-term schemas about gender, and that such schemas influence everyday interactions in potentially detrimental ways for women. According to the cultivation theory ( Gerbner et al., 1986 ), repeated exposure to media content influences how social realities are perceived and understood. Adolescents who play video games may model beliefs about gender role on the distorted reality presented in video games. Relevant to the present study, given that a high percentage of video games include sexist and even misogynistic portrayals of females, we hypothesize that more spent time playing video games should predict higher sexist attitudes.

Because video games are designed for iterative play (potentially more than 100 h for the more developed products) and are inherently interactive, they enable repeated and distributed learning about gender roles that may have enduring effects. Video game characters can be agents of gender socialization among youth, and the amount of exposure to video games should predict the endorsement of gender stereotypes. Some studies have supported this prediction. Several experimental studies showed the short-term effect of sexualised video games on sexist attitudes. These studies show that playing sexualized video games for a few minutes (10–20 min) promotes men’s likelihood to endorse gender stereotypes ( Behm-Morawitz and Mastro, 2009 ; Yao et al., 2010 ), increase hostile sexism ( Fox and Bailenson, 2009 ), and increases men’s acceptance of sexual harassment ( Dill et al., 2008 ).

Fewer studies have been interested in long-term links between video game and sexist attitudes. In one cross-sectional study, it was shown that men who regularly played video games with sexist contents (according to their own evaluation of sexism) tended to have a higher level of benevolent sexism, that is associated with perceptions of rigid gender roles and is characterized by protective, patronizing attitudes toward women ( Stermer and Burkley, 2015 ). However, a longitudinal study examining the influence of video game exposure on sexist beliefs and attitudes over a 3 year period found no evidence of a cultivation effect ( Breuer et al., 2015 ). Further cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are therefore necessary.

In the present study, we were interested in the links between video games and sexist attitudes and we focused on the largest sample gathered to date on video games and sexism. We therefore hypothesized a positive relationship between overall video game exposure and the adherence to sexist attitudes (hypothesis 1). We investigated television as a comparison variable, because most of the available research on sexism and the media is based on TV content ( Herrett-Skjellum and Allen, 1996 ; Morgan and Shanahan, 1997 ; Signorielli and Bacue, 1999 ; Coltrane and Messineo, 2000 ; Oppliger, 2007 ; Valls-Fernández and Martínez-Vicente, 2007 ; Nassif and Gunter, 2008 ; Eisend, 2010 ; Furnham and Paltzer, 2010 ; Paek et al., 2011 ; Scharrer, 2014 ; Matthes et al., 2016 ). As in other countries, French television depicts gender roles in very stereotypical ways, as indicated by the gender of the primary character, the associated product categories, the home or work setting and the working role of the primary character ( Matthes et al., 2016 ).

It is therefore relevant to analyze simultaneously the respective links of these two kinds of media on sexism. It can be expected that the inherent interactivity of video game could prove to be more influential than television. In a study on media violence, it has been shown that children playing a violent video game were then more aggressive than those who merely watched the same violent video game in a passive way ( Polman et al., 2008 ). We therefore expected that the link between sexist attitudes would be more strongly predicted by video game exposure than by TV exposure (hypothesis 2).

Sexism as an Embedded Attitude

Although social psychological research has shown that sexist attitudes or behavior may be temporarily increased even by situational cues ( Rudman and Phelan, 2010 ), sexism is generally embedded in a mesh of cultural beliefs and grounded in social and institutional practices. Long-term and institutional sources of sexism may interact with media influences on sexism. Media content may produce contrasted effects for different types of people or in different social context ( Morgan et al., 2009 ). For example, although overall amount of television viewing was related to the endorsement of anti-egalitarian gender roles in a sample of Tokyo residents, the correlation was reversed in a subsample of politically conservative participants ( Saito, 2007 ). In some cultural contexts, therefore, media exposure may counter gender stereotypes. For example, in Kuwait, exposure to US television appears as a significant predictor of less, and not more, gender stereotypical views ( Abdulrahim et al., 2009 ). Religion embodies an important and ubiquitous influence on gender role representations ( Morgan, 1987 ; Glick et al., 2002 ; Christopher and Mull, 2006 ; Maltby et al., 2010 ), and represents maybe the “single most important shaper for sex roles” ( Wilson, 1978 ). We included religiosity in our model to compare the effects of video game to ideological commitments that consistently contribute to gender role beliefs. Many studies carried out in Europe and North America have shown that religiously affiliated people were more prone to support unequal gender roles and to consider that women are first of all housekeepers and mothers ( Thornton et al., 1983 ; Wilcox and Jelen, 1991 ; Sherkat and Ellison, 1999 ; Ghazel, 2003 ; Voicu, 2009 ).

We therefore expected that religiosity would be positively related to sexism (hypothesis 3), but also that the link between video game exposure and sexism would be lower among high religious participants (hypothesis 4) following the above research showing that media can challenge rigid sex roles among traditional groups.

Materials and Methods

Sampling procedure and participants.

The sample included 13520 participants aged 11–19 who were selected at school through stratified random sampling and is representative of the metropolitan areas of Grenoble and of Lyon, France. These two cities are the major municipalities of the second largest and wealthiest region of France. The sample population corresponded to urban France in terms of age, sex and school level. Students completed paper questionnaires in their classrooms. An assistant was present in the room and helped the participants upon request. The participation rate was slightly above 95%.

The sample included both public and private schools (with the rare exception of schools that have not contracted with the state) and all curricula, professional as well as the general (the latter being the pathway to college with the best students). National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies indicated that in the year during which the survey was carried out, there were 99.4% of youth attending school at 12, declining to 89% 1 year prior to the baccalaureate 1 . After contacting all schools, half of them declined to participate (the participation was 46/67 in Grenoble, and 81/220 in Lyon, with a deficit in schools with reputation for excellence or “general curriculum” and the private schools). Classes were randomly selected in each school grade of every school. The sample is in line with the reference population in terms of percentage of students per grade, age, gender according to the available statistical elements provided by the education authorities.

Ethics Statement

The study was approved by the National Commission on Computer and Freedoms (CNIL, decision n#2012-148). Ethics in social studies in France is entrusted to the CNIL which is a national independent body that has representatives in universities. The present study categorized as sensitive was therefore subjected to the most thorough examination by the CNIL (the full review level 3). It includes questionnaire, population, sampling process, data storage, and modalities for obtaining the person’s consent. Due to the juvenile status of the population in its largest part, and the fact that the survey took place at school, a multiple level consent process was designed. The consent process was reviewed by the CNIL and implemented along the lines of the CNIL. Consent of schools was obtained in writing both from school heads and provincial directorates of education (one for each sampling zone). Consent of parents was asked through a home liaison diary which is the usual means for communication between the school and the family. The parents had to return an approval/refusal written note (active consent). Children could orally refuse to participate to the survey in full, even if their parents had approved the survey. They also could omit responding to questions in the questionnaire. All written consent material is retained by school masters so that filed workers never learn any of the names of the students. Statistical material about approval/refusal in each classroom was communicated by the school head to the research team.

All the measures were extracted from a larger survey based on the ISRD 2 Questionnaire ( Enzman et al., 2010 ). Gender was coded as male = 1 (50.7%) or female = 2 (49.1%). Participants ages ranged between 11 and 19 ( M = 14.5; SD = 1.36). As in other studies (e.g., Lien et al., 2001 ), fathers’ educational level was used as a proxy for socioeconomic status and was distributed into the following categories: (1) no degree, (2) lower than baccalaureate, (3) hold a baccalaureate, (4) higher than baccalaureate ( M = 3,05; SD = 0.99). Albeit less than optimal, such a measure enables an approximation of socioeconomic status that is less subjected to biases or missing values than other estimations in the context of a school survey.

Media Exposure

Media exposure was assessed by the following question: “How many hours per day did you spend on average last week, Monday to Friday playing computer or on the video game console?” and “How many hours per day did you spend on average last week, Monday to Friday watching TV, DVDs, films (including on the internet).” In order to ensure an appropriate distribution of the variables, we created 10 categories, from (1) 1 h per day to (10) 10 h or more per day. According to their estimations, participants spent 2.77 h per day watching TV ( SD = 2.79) and 1.70 h per day playing video games ( SD = 2.63).

Although this measure cannot estimate the quantity of sexist content adolescents were exposed to in video games and on television, women are frequently portrayed in sexist ways (e.g., Dietz, 1998 ; Beasley and Collins Standley, 2002 ; Burgess et al., 2007 ; Jansz and Martis, 2007 ; Downs and Smith, 2010 ), and this is the case in French media ( Matthes et al., 2016 ). Time exposure to TV and video games may therefore be considered as an acceptable proxy for general exposure to sexist contents.

Religiosity

Two measures of religiosity were included. Religious attendance was assessed by asking respondents to report the frequency they attended religious services, from never (1) to every day (6). The denominations were: Catholics: 27.4%; Muslims: 25.9%; Protestants: 1.9%; Jews: 0.9%; Christian orthodox: 0.7%; Anglicans: 0.1; others 3.8. Moreover, 39.4% declared no religion. Religious salience was measured by a 4-point scale of how important religion is in participant’s everyday life ranging from not at all important (1) to very important (4). The two measures being strongly related, we constructed a composite measure (Cronbach’s α = 0.72; M = 2.24; SD = 1.07).

Sexism was measured with a single-item question. Participants were asked the following Likert-type question: “A woman is made mainly for making and raising children,” from fully disagree (1) to fully agree (4), M = 1.53; SD = 0.9.

Preliminary analyses indicated that sexism was higher among males ( M = 1.71, SD = 0.98 vs. M = 1.35, SD = 0.77, tcor(12922) = 23.59) and decreased as socioeconomic status increased ( r = -0.13, p < 0.001). Religiosity was related to higher sexism ( r = 0.23; p < 0.001). Television exposure ( r = 0.08, p < 0.001) and video game exposure ( r = 0.15, p < 0.001) were also both related to sexism at a bivariate level. The bivariate correlations between all the variables are presented in Table 1 . 2

TABLE 1. Correlations and descriptive statistics.

In order to test our primary hypotheses, a stepwise multiple regression was performed entering age, gender, socioeconomic level, religiosity, TV exposure and video games exposure in a first step. We also introduced in a second step interactions between video games exposure and age, gender, socioeconomic level, and religiosity. As expected, video games exposure was related to sexism (β = 0.07, t = 8.10, p < 0.001). This was also the case of religiosity (β = 0.20, t = 23.92, p < 0.001). Sexism was more endorsed by males (β = -0.18, t = -0.20.46, p < 0.001). Moreover, higher socioeconomic level predicted lower sexism (β = -0.09, t = -0.10,36, p < 0.001). After controlling for all these variables, television exposure was unrelated to sexism (β = 0.015, t = 1.66, p < 0.10). No interaction effects were observed. The overall determination coefficient was R 2 = 0.104, p < 0.001.

In this cross-sectional study based on a representative sample of 13520 French youth aged 11–19 years, we showed that general video game exposure was significantly related to sexism, irrespective of gender, age, socioeconomic status, and religion. We also observed that general television exposure was unrelated to sexism after each of the variables were controlled. Of course, the usual critiques aimed at cross-sectional surveys fully apply here, particularly the limitations in terms of assessing causality. It may be that individuals with sexist orientations spend more time playing videogames ( Fox and Tang, 2016 ). In order to address causality issue, future experimental studies could be based on the same protocol as Polman et al. (2008) , who showed that people were more influenced by the content of a scene where they were actively playing themselves the game compared to a condition in which they merely passively watched the screen with the same contents.

It also should be noted that the determination coefficient was small, which suggest that many important correlates of sexism were not measured in our survey. For example, it has been shown that sexism is related to gender inequality ( Glick et al., 2004 ; Napier et al., 2010 ), social dominance, right-wing authoritarianism ( Christopher and Mull, 2006 ), and conservative values ( Mikolajczak and Pietrzak, 2014 ). The mere introduction of such social psychological variables may affect the predictive value of general video game exposure.

Another limitation is the underrepresentation of some categories of schools in our sample, with a deficit in schools with reputation for excellence or “general curriculum” and the private schools. Studies suggest that sexism may be endorsed more strongly in lower social classes ( Gianettoni and Simon-Vermot, 2010 ), which are usually less represented in such schools. Such a sampling feature may have affected the results of the survey.

It should also be mentioned that the use of a single-item scale to assess sexism was less than optimal. This item was actually the only measure of sexism in the ISRD2 survey, and represents a very specific dimension of sexism (motherhood or domesticity) that hardly captures all possible forms of sexist thinking. As previously indicated, experimental studies showed that playing sexualized video games for a few minutes promoted gender stereotypes ( Behm-Morawitz and Mastro, 2009 ; Yao et al., 2010 ), increased hostile sexism ( Fox and Bailenson, 2009 ), and men’s acceptance of sexual harassment ( Dill et al., 2008 ). Future survey studies should include measures of objectification and standard measures of benevolent and hostile sexism ( Glick and Fiske, 1996 ). Finally, we used a general measure of TV and video game experience rather than measuring exposure to specifically sexist portrayals.

A strength of this study is the multivariate approach, including other known predictors of sexist attitudes. Video game exposure was a significant factor even after controlling for age, sex, socioeconomic level, television exposure, and religiosity, which is considered a particularly strong determinant of sexism ( Morgan, 1987 ; Glick et al., 2002 ; Christopher and Mull, 2006 ; Maltby et al., 2010 ). The link between religion and sexism was, however, three times higher than the links between video games and sexism. Contrary to our expectations, the link between video games exposure and sexism was not moderated by religion in this sample. The importance of religiosity in the prediction of sexism would justify a fine-grained approach in future research based on religious orientations ( Batson et al., 1993 ). Interestingly, participants with a higher socioeconomic level endorsed less sexism. This is consistent with a behavioral study carried out in an online first shooters video game showing that low status players were more hostile toward a female teammate, while high status players were more positive toward her ( Kasumovic and Kuznekoff, 2015 ).

The causal link between video game exposure and sexism in action deserves to be confirmed by experimental studies. This is especially the case for sexist behaviors, which have been under-studied ( Stermer and Burkley, 2012 ). If confirmed, however, the video game industry may find it appropriate to encourage an evolution in the way women are represented, because sexism on screen can have consequences which are not limited to the virtual world. Today, 48% of video game players are female ( Entertainment Software Association, 2014 ), and in addition to the development of sexist attitudes, the repeated exposure to biased female models on games produces body dissatisfaction among women ( Holmstrom, 2004 ), self-objectification ( Fox et al., 2015 ) and eating disorders ( Grabe et al., 2008 ).

We showed for the first time in a large representative sample that video game exposure was related to sexism, controlling for television exposure, religiosity, and other relevant factors. Our results suggest that a traditional source of influence (religiosity) as well as new digital media may share some similar features on sexism.

Author Contributions

SR designed and directed the survey. LB analyzed the data and wrote the paper, helped by ES, CB, DG, and SR. The whole co-authors contributed to the final draft.

The data are part of the POLIS Survey, an ANR funded project ref ANR-08-FASHS-1.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

The reviewer AC and the handling Editor declared their shared affiliation, and the handling Editor states that the process nevertheless met the standards of a fair and objective review.

• ^ Baccalaureate is a school-leaving examination leading to university entrance qualification in the French school system. In France, school is compulsory until the age of 16.
• ^ We performed bivariate analysis among the two largest religious groups: Catholics and Muslims. The correlation between video game exposure and sexism was, respectively, 0.18 and 0.11 ( p < 0.001 for each). The correlation between television exposure and sexism was 0.08 and 0. 01 (ns). This latest result is consistent with studies showing that television impact on sexism is not homogeneous among social subgroups ( Saito, 2007 ; Abdulrahim et al., 2009 ).

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Keywords : sexism, gender role, video games, television, religiosity

Citation: Bègue L, Sarda E, Gentile DA, Bry C and Roché S (2017) Video Games Exposure and Sexism in a Representative Sample of Adolescents. Front. Psychol. 8:466. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00466

Received: 28 November 2016; Accepted: 13 March 2017; Published: 31 March 2017.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2017 Bègue, Sarda, Gentile, Bry and Roché. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Laurent Bègue, [email protected]

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Researchers find video games influence sexist attitudes

Posted Mar 28, 2017 8:45 am

New research shows repeated play of video games can influence sexist attitudes. ( Larger image ) Photo by Christopher Gannon

AMES, Iowa – There are distinct similarities in the way women are portrayed in many popular video games. Female characters are typically attractive, scantily clad, appear in sexually suggestive ways and generally have limited roles.

Douglas Gentile, a professor of psychology at Iowa State University, says these images send a powerful message that can influence the underlying attitudes of gamers. According to a new study of more than 13,000 adolescents, Gentile and a team of French researchers found a link between video game exposure and sexism. The research is published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. 

“Many different aspects of life can influence sexist attitudes.  It was surprising to find a small but significant link between game play and sexism. Video games are not intended to teach sexist views, but most people don’t realize how attitudes can shift with practice,” Gentile said. “Nonetheless, much of our learning is not conscious and we pick up on subtle cues without realizing it.”

Researchers did not look solely at video games, but also measured the influence of television and religion. Gentile was not surprised to find the relationship between religion and sexism was three times higher than video games. This is likely because many religions have historically taken a traditional view of gender roles, he said. TV was unrelated to sexism after controlling for religion. Gentile says this may be evidence of the growing number and variety of female character roles on TV compared to 20 years ago.

Practice makes perfect

Repeated exposure to media influences how we perceive and understand social realities, according to George Gerbner’s cultivation theory. Gentile says that influence increases with repeated exposure. The 13,520 adolescents, ages 11 to 19, surveyed for the study, spent approximately three hours a day watching TV and nearly two hours playing video games, on average.

Researchers did not measure the level of sexist content in the games played. However, in the paper they cite previous studies that found more than 80 percent of female characters in video game magazines are portrayed as sexualized, scantily clad or a vision of beauty. More than a quarter of the characters fit all three categories.

To measure sexism, researchers asked participants if they agreed or disagreed with the following statement: “A woman is made mainly for making and raising children.” Participants who spent more time playing video games were more likely to agree.

Douglas Gentile

“If you repeatedly ‘practice’ various decisions and choices in games, this practice can influence your attitudes and behaviors outside of the gaming world,” Gentile said.

Gentile used the example of the game “Grand Theft Auto,” which gives players few options of how to interact with female characters – “you can pay them for sex, you can look at them or you can kill them,” Gentile said. “This is an extremely limited view of the value of women.”

Findings true regardless of culture

Researchers controlled for gender and socioeconomics. However, when analyzing the factors separately, sexism was higher among men with a lower socioeconomic status. Participants attended schools in Lyon and Grenoble, France – two cities in the second largest and wealthiest region of France.

Although cultural differences often influence our attitudes, Gentile says the results are applicable across cultures because this study is focused on learned behaviors, not general cultural beliefs. How we learn and detect cues is the same regardless of culture, he said.

The researchers say it’s important to understand that there are many things – religion, family, education, socioeconomic status – that influence sexist views. Gentile says video games are not the most important factor, and it is interesting that they are related to sexism at all.

Douglas Gentile, Psychology, [email protected] , 515-294-1472

Angie Hunt, News Service, [email protected] , 515-294-8986

The images and roles of female characters in video games send a powerful message that can influence the underlying attitudes of gamers. Iowa State and French researchers found a link between video game exposure and sexism in a new study of more than 13,000 adolescents.

“Many different aspects of life can influence sexist attitudes.  It was surprising to find a small but significant link between game play and sexism. Video games are not intended to teach sexist views, but most people don’t realize how attitudes can shift with practice.”

Douglas Gentile, associate professor of psychology

Video Games Have No Impact on Players’ Views of Women

Contrary to some claims, a new study finds video games socially benign..

Posted April 2, 2023 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

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• A recent meta-analysis shows that video games do not increase misogyny.

Video games are huge. Globally, gaming now grosses more money than the movie industry, more than the music industry, more than all North American professional sports leagues combined—and almost as much as television. Consequently, gaming affects how players, mostly men, view the world. Some video games—among them Last of Us and Horizon Zero Dawn —include strong, resourceful female characters who take care of themselves while deftly dispatching adversaries. But many games still present women as little more than scantily-dressed objects of male lust. Which raises a question: Do video games encourage sexism and misogyny? Recently, in an analysis of 18 studies, an international team of researchers found that video games do not contribute to sexism or misogyny.

War on Women?

Critics of video games insist that most promote prejudices against women. They cite games in which women appear as only victims of violence, or as prostitutes (such as in the Grand Theft Auto franchise), or as damsels in distress in need of rescue (as in Zelda) . Critics also cite lawsuits filed by women employed by gaming companies that accuse them of gender discrimination and routine sexual harassment based on a “frat boy” culture, with men at all levels disparaging women and possibly participating in “cube crawls” that involve alcohol -fueled sexual obnoxiousness.

Two dozen studies have explored the social impact of sexualized video games on players. Some have found that they do encourage misogyny. But others have shown otherwise. A recent meta-analysis of 18 studies not only exonerated video games from accusations of social harm, but also identified significant researcher bias in previous studies that called games sexist and misogynist.

No Significant Influence on Gender Attitudes or Behavior

Every year for the past decade, around three-quarters of Americans age six to 50 have played video games, usually on phones. In the early years of video games, almost all players were male. Today, men account for only 59 percent of gamers, as increasing numbers of women embrace gaming. Some game commentators predict that video games will soon reach gender parity. If that’s true, then critics’ claims of sexism and misogyny would potentially identify a threat to the self-esteem and well-being of increasing numbers of women.

In the meta-analysis, the researchers used standard statistical techniques to investigate the impact of sexualized video games on players’ mental and emotional well-being and attitudes toward women. As men’s gaming time increased, the analysis found no significant movement toward greater sexism/misogyny. And as women’s gaming time increased, they showed no significant deterioration of well-being or self-esteem. In other words, sexualized video games may seem psychologically damaging, but in fact, appear to be socially and psychologically benign.

The researchers also ranked all 18 studies based on their scientific rigor—how many “best research practices” they included. The studies incorporating the fewest best research practices were the most likely to conclude that video games contribute to misogyny. As studies’ rigor increased, they were less likely to find games to be misogynistic. In other words, some authors of the studies in the meta-analysis started out with anti-gaming biases, and their conclusions erroneously affirmed them.

The meta-analysis team concluded: “However offensive video games may be to many people, our analysis shows they do not harm players’ well-being or contribute to sexism or misogyny.”

New Media, New Moral Panic

The controversy over sexualized video games is nothing new. Throughout history, whenever new entertainment media have become popular, critics have charged that they promote violence or sexism/misogyny. And every time, the best studies have shown critics’ fears to be unfounded.

Consider television violence. During the first half of the 20th century, movies and pulp fiction included violence, but few people got upset. Then around 1950, the first television stations began broadcasting, and by 1960, almost every American home had a TV. Television brought unprecedented amounts of violence into the nation’s living rooms. Critics predicted that childhood exposure to all that mayhem was sure to warp young men and push them into violent crime . For a while, that prediction appeared prophetic. Starting in the late 1950s and continuing into the 1970s, youth crime soared, and “juvenile delinquency” became a national concern. Conservative religious and political leaders agitated for legislation to minimize TV violence. But by the 1970s, it became clear that television had not caused the surge in juvenile delinquency. The cause was the enormity of the Baby Boom generation. Young Baby Boom men comprised a record share of the population. During their most crime-prone years, age 15 to 25, there were so many young men that violent crime soared. Subsequent generations have had fewer children per capita—meaning fewer young men, comprising a smaller proportion of the population. Some committed crimes, but as the proportion of young men in the population declined, the number of violent crimes fell. In recent decades, despite more TV channels showing more violence than ever, the crime rate has declined substantially. Today no credible authority blames youth violence on TV.

Consider pornography . During the first half of the 20th century, pornographic films were available only at a modest number of porn theaters, and few people got upset. But starting around 1975, videocassette players brought porn into America’s living rooms, and after 1995, the Internet brought it to personal computers and phones—often for free. Porn viewing soared. Critics railed that this contributed to sexism, divorce , sexual assault , erectile dysfunction, and teen sexual irresponsibility. But rigorous studies have thoroughly debunked all those allegations. (See my posts from 2009 , 2016 , 2019 , 2019 , and 2021 .) Porn disgusts many people, but the best evidence shows that it does not cause significant social harm.

Now the spotlight is on video games. Once again, cultural conservatives have accused them of causing social harm. And once again, robust research shows those allegations to be mistaken.

How Does Media Actually Affect Us?

Some media messages have a substantial impact on beliefs and behavior—for example, advertising . If ads didn’t work, marketers would not spend billions on them. But many media messages have little or no social impact. TV commercials during professional football games sell oceans of beer. But despite all the violence on television, TV doesn’t “sell” violent behavior, fortunately. Conclusion: Some media messages affect people’s beliefs and actions, but others don’t.

Most messages embedded in entertainment media have little or no impact on beliefs and behavior. When the Roadrunner smashes Wile E. Coyote over the head with a sledgehammer, viewers do not grab a hammer and look for a target. The messages in video games fall into the same category. Like cartoons, the games are fantasies , not marching orders. The meta-analysis shows that playing video games does not affect sane people’s beliefs or behavior in ways that threaten women.

Media messages are not destiny; they’re tools. Not every tool accomplishes every job. Social conservatives believe that exposure to any mass media with objectionable content leads to belief in that content, and that such believing automatically propels people into antisocial action. That’s simply not true. Many video games may disparage women—while leaving players’ beliefs about women unaffected.

Ferguson, CJ et al. “Does Sexualization in Video Games Cause Harm in Players? A Meta-Analytic Examination,” Computers in Human Behavior (2022) Doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2022.107341.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/videogames-are-a-bigger-industry-than-sports-and-movies-combined-thanks-to-the-pandemic-11608654990

https://magazine.swe.org/gaming-sidebar/#:~:text=Over%20the%20past%20decade%2C%20news,regularly%20experience%20harassment%20and%20mistreatment .

https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/survey-more-people-play-video-games-than-go-to-movies/

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-videogames-television-idUSKCN1TB2CB

Michael Castleman, M.A. , is a San Francisco-based journalist. He has written about sexuality for 36 years.

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Content Analysis in the Research Field of Video Games

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• First Online: 25 September 2022

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• Tim Wulf 6 ,
• Daniel Possler 7 &
• Johannes Breuer 8  

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This chapter provides an overview of content-analytical research on video games. We introduce existing and emerging constructs commonly studied in content analyses of video games (e.g., violence, sexism), review methodological challenges, and discuss how research so far has dealt with them. We also offer suggestions for future directions for content analyses of video games, both in terms of the constructs and games studied as well as the methods applied.

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Introduction

An Overview of Structural Characteristics in Problematic Video Game Playing

Mark D. Griffiths & Filip Nuyens

Video Games Are Not Socially Isolating

• Gender stereotypes
• Video games

1 Introduction

Video games have become a major leisure activity for users of all ages, genders, and social groups (ESA 2019 ). The diversification of the player population is closely associated with an increasing diversity of games themselves. Technological developments like smartphones, tablet computers, virtual, and augmented reality have created possibilities for new types of video games which also have implications for research on this medium. While much of the empirical research on video games focuses on (potential) effects on the players (for an overview, see Klimmt and Possler 2020 ), there is a comparably smaller number of studies analyzing their content. One reason for this scarceness is that video games have a set of specific characteristics which make it challenging to adequately select and analyze their content. This chapter provides an overview of common research questions and methods of content-analytic work on video games. We will discuss the particular challenges for this line of research and provide suggestions on how to address them. Building on the overview chapter by Breuer and Quandt ( 2014 ), we will also review recent work (2014–2019) and discuss methodological developments and trends that may facilitate and extend content analyses of video games.

2 Main Constructs & Topics of Content Analyses of Video Games

Overall, content analyses of video games have mostly focused on content that might have a negative or detrimental impact on players, such as violence (e.g. Hartmann et al. 2014 ) or stereotypical depictions of female characters (e.g., Lynch et al. 2016 ) or, to a lesser degree, ethnic minorities (Dill et al. 2005 ). As discussed by Breuer and Quandt ( 2014 ), the findings of these studies are generally consistent. Most studies looking at violent content find a substantial amount of it in the video games they analyzed (see, e.g. Smith et al. 2003 ). Similarly, content analyses of gender stereotypes consistently find underrepresentation and stereotypical (typically also sexualized) depictions of female characters (Downs and Smith 2009 ; Ivory 2006 ; Lynch et al. 2016 ).

While in research on the effects of video games, a majority of the work has also focused on negative aspects (chiefly violence and excessive use), over the last decade, there has been an increased interest in serious games, i.e., “games with a purpose beyond play“ (Klopfer et al. 2009 , p. 20) in communication research. Popular examples of such serious games include “ Darfur is Dying”, “Papers, Please”, “That Dragon, Cancer”, or “ Re-Mission 2”. However, to date there are only a few content analyses of serious games. One of the few examples is a study by Ratan and Ritterfeld ( 2009 ) in which the authors classified serious games based on their primary educational content (e.g., academic, occupation, or health), primary learning principle (e.g., practicing skills, cognitive or social problem solving), target age group, and game platform. More recently, Lu and Kharazzi ( 2018 ) analyzed the content of 1743 (serious) health games released between 1983 and 2016. In addition to attributes specific to this type of games, such as primary health topics and level of influence, they also looked at general characteristics, such as genre , character types, and setting. All in all, content analyses of the positive aspects of video games are still quite rare.

3 The Challenges of Doing Content Analyses of Video Games

Scholars aiming to content analyze video games are faced with particular challenges arising from the specific attributes of this medium. A key feature of video games that distinguishes them from other forms of media is their interactivity (Weber et al. 2014 ). Compared to linear media, such as movies, that can be described as pre-composed fixed messages, the content of video games depends on the players’ inputs which, in turn, are a function of various player-specific variables, such as skill, preferences (e.g., regarding the customization of their avatar), or playing style. Modern narrative games especially offer players large degrees of freedom and allow them to make decisions that have profound influence on the progression of the narrative. Hence, the content varies substantially between players and playing sessions. This challenge becomes even more pronounced for multiplayer games where in-game events depend on various players’ decisions and skills. This can limit the generalizability of recorded content and may even result in biases (Schmierbach 2009 ). The research overview by Breuer and Quandt ( 2014 ) shows that considerable variation exists in the way content analyses of video games dealt with this issue. Especially the number of different players involved in such studies varies. Moreover, in some studies, players and coders of the material are the same person (e.g., Heintz-Knowles et al. 2001 ), while in other studies, players and coders are different people (e.g., Haninger and Thompson 2004 ).

Another set of challenges arises from the fact that video games are complex with regards to their structural features. While newspaper articles only consist of written text and movies can be analyzed by focusing on the audio and visual signals, video games come with a variety (and multitude) of content consisting of audio (music, spoken language/voice, and ambient noises), visual (anything happening on the screen), haptic (physical feedback) and textual stimuli. One implication of this complexity is that codebooks have to deal with and measure the various structural features of video games. Another challenge is that modern games tend to be quite long. A full playthrough can take dozens of hours. As recording and coding that much footage would take an enormous amount of time (especially if researchers want to analyze multiple games), studies typically sample parts of a game. In practice, studies use recordings of playing sessions of various duration, ranging from 10 min (Lachlan et al. 2005 ) to 20 min (Beasley and Collins Standley 2002 ) or even 60 min (Haninger and Thompson 2004 ). However, with such an approach, it is likely that the selected parts are not representative of the game as a whole. Especially the first parts of a game may not contain the specific types of content that researchers are interested in (e.g., there is no violent content because the first 10 or 20 min do not feature combat). Accordingly, the selection of a sample of game content can have strong impact on the results of the respective analysis. Studies have used different approaches to tackle some of these challenges. We will discuss some of these solutions and additional suggestions inspired by recent methodological developments in the field of communication research in the following.

4 How to Address Challenges in Content Analyses of Video Games?

A viable way of addressing some of the challenges discussed in the previous section is to use other sources than the game itself as coding material. The range of alternative coding materials used in content analyses of video games includes cover art and booklets (Brand et al. 2003 ), ads (Scharrer 2004 ), and professional journalistic as well as user-generated game reviews (Ivory 2006 ; Zhu and Fang 2015 ). In Table  1 , we provide an overview of the different types of coding material used for content analyses of video games. While all of these alternative coding materials avoid the issues related with the use of in-game material, they each come with their own set of limitations.

One type of materials that have been used more frequently in recent studies (Hartmann et al. 2014 ; Lynch et al. 2016 ) due to their inherent advantages are video recordings of people playing the games from YouTube. Another relevant platform that features a lot of video game content but has not yet been used in content-analytic studies is the live streaming platform Twitch. Both types of video platforms provide content produced by various people with different demographic characteristics, skills, and playing styles for the same game(s). Thus, using material from such platforms might help to identify differences in content between players without the need to let multiple people play the game in a lab setting. A particular advantage of Twitch is that the content is recorded live, meaning that it is not post-edited (in contrast to many YouTube videos). While using such platforms can reduce the costs and effort of producing the coding material, this approach also has certain limitations. People who watch video game videos on YouTube or Twitch typically do so to be entertained (Sjöblom and Hamari 2017 ; Wulf et al. 2018 ). Hence, the people producing the videos might, e.g., play in a way that is particularly entertaining to receive approval and popularity among viewers. They may also play in a different way because they are observed while playing and—if the content is streamed live—may be distracted from playing by interactions with their viewers. Of course, such “meta-comments”, could also be of interest given that they can provide context for certain in-game decisions. Moreover, most streamers, many of whom make money with their videos, play popular “blockbuster” games (see for example, Wohn and Freeman 2020 ). Accordingly, there is less of this type of material researchers could use for analyzing more niche or serious games.

In general, when looking at the different options for coding materials, it is important to keep in mind that the quality of the material can differ largely and depends on their original purpose (e.g., advertising a game vs. critically reviewing it). We, therefore, suggest that researchers carefully evaluate which materials are most suitable for the specific research question(s) they are interested in. In addition, it may be advisable to systematically combine different materials in order to address some of the limitations of each individual type of material. For example, while YouTube footage may show how violence is visually represented in individual scenes, researchers may use additional material, such as a Wikipedia articles, walkthroughs, and strategy guides to get more information about, e.g., the narrative embedding of the violence (e.g., Hartmann et al. 2014 ).

5 Research Desiderata and Outlook

Based on our review of the existing literature and in light of recent methodological developments in the field of communication as a whole, we identified several desiderata for future content analysis of video games. These include substantive as well as methodological aspects. On the substantive side, a step forward would be to broaden the topical scope and investigate aspects beyond the “negative content patterns” (Smith 2006 , p. 57) of violence and sexism. Broadening the topical scope would also necessitate the inclusion of other types of games than the ones that are typically studied in analyses of violent or sexist content. While shooter or action games have been investigated in many existing studies, family-friendly and casual games, including popular titles, such as those from the “ Super Mario” series, or successful mobile games, such as “ Pokémon Go” or “ Candy Crush” , have received considerably less attention so far. This is all the more remarkable as recent studies showed beneficial effects of such video games on well-being, recovery, and the fulfillment of psychological needs (e.g., Koban et al. 2019 ; Wulf et al. 2019 ). One potential reason why these games have been largely neglected in content analyses is that many of them feature less narrative content than, e.g., a role-playing or action adventure game. Importantly, however, the content of a video game is not just its narrative but also its playing mechanisms. Investigating these in content analyses may, e.g., help to better understand why people keep playing a particular game (which is also highly relevant for research on excessive use) or which particular features of a game can have a positive effect on well-being of their players. In addition to that, there are many topics which are neither clearly socially desirable (like learning or well-being) nor undesirable (like violence and sexism) that would be interesting to investigate in systematic content analysis. Content analyses of video games could, for example, look at portrayals of social concepts, such as politics, family, the role of science in society, or the portrayal of specific historical periods.

As stated before, another potential venue for content-analytic work on video games is to also look (more) at the structural and technological features of games instead of just focusing on the narrative content. Research of this type could, for example, look at differences and changes in interaction mechanisms (e.g., the number of players involved, competition vs. cooperation), or the use of novel technologies, such as virtual or augmented reality in video games. In general, the rapid technological developments are something that researchers have to keep abreast of. These changes lead to coding schemes becoming quickly outdated. In practice, this means that it can become difficult to apply coding schemes from earlier studies to new analyses. While some consistency is desirable to allow for comparisons across time, the nature of the medium makes frequent adaptations necessary.

Regarding the methods employed in content analyses of video games, we would like to encourage researchers to further explore and exploit the potentials of alternative coding materials (i.e., materials other than actual in-game footage). The use of reviews of video games seems especially promising as these are available for almost all games and from a huge variety of players. Moreover, researchers may address some of the limitations listed in Table  1 by using multiple instances of the same type of coding material for the same game. For example, while one user review may be heavily distorted due to the individual preferences of the author, several hundreds of reviews on the very same game should offer a much more diverse perspective. In order to collect and analyze such large data sets, researchers may use computational methods (van Atteveldt and Peng 2018 ). To gather large amounts of material from online sources, researchers can use automated procedures, such as crawling and scraping techniques or make use of the application programming interfaces (APIs) provided by some gaming websites (Possler et al. 2019 ). For example, Zhu and Fang ( 2015 ) collected nearly 700,000 user reviews from three gaming websites using a web crawler. Subsequently, scholars can apply several forms of automated content analysis methods to analyze the gathered (textual) data (Grimmer and Stewart 2013 ), such as text mining, natural language processing, and supervised (e.g., Naive Bayes classifier) and unsupervised (e.g., Topic Models) machine learning (ML) techniques. In a recent study, Wang and Goh ( 2020 ) used topic modeling — an unsupervised ML method to uncover the thematic structure of texts (Blei 2012 ) — to identify central topics in a collection of more than 9,300 user-generated game reviews published on amazon.com. While the main aim of this study was to present a general overview of the topics of reviews, the method could also be used to uncover and compare the most prominent topics in discussions about specific games. So far, automated procedures have mostly been used to analyze user reviews. However, we suggest that they may also be useful when working with other textual material describing video game content, such as (online) encyclopedia entries, walkthroughs or strategy guides. Moreover, audio tracks of game recordings could be transformed to texts and subsequently analyzed by using automated transcription tools (e.g., the YouTube captioning engine; Bokhove and Downey 2018 ). Finally, researchers could also make use of recent methodological developments for the automated analysis of visual content (for an overview, see Geise et al. 2016 ). At least for still images there are many ready-to-use implementations of computer vision libraries (e.g., for object or facial recognition) for commonly used programming languages like Python or R. Large-scale analysis of screenshots or ads could make use of such techniques as well. It should be kept in mind, however, that all of these automated methods have their own pitfalls. Concerns exist regarding the completeness and potential biases of computational data gathering techniques (Possler et al. 2019 ) as well as the validity of automated content analysis (e.g., Grimmer and Stewart 2013 ). Therefore, we, suggest that scholars carefully evaluate the individual benefits and weaknesses of these methods for their respective research question(s) and ideally combine different methods of gathering and analyzing data.

Altogether, we believe that using a combination of (a) different coding materials (e.g., professional and user reviews or reviews and wiki entries) and (b) different analysis methods (e.g., supervised machine learning approaches and topic models) is an approach that has great potential to further advance the field of content analyses of video games. Studies combining different sources can also be used to systematically compare the potentials and limitations of the respective types of coding materials.

Summing up, there is no single “best practice” for content analyses of video games. The specific characteristics of the medium, namely its interactivity and structural complexity, as well as its rapid technological development make it especially difficult to identify or define standards for content analyses of video games. In practice, this means that content analyses of video games vary substantially with regard to the sampling strategies, coding materials, coding schemes, and analysis methods they employ. Unlike the methodological approaches, the topical foci have been surprisingly consistent across the decades (from the earliest works in the 1980s until today). The large majority of content analyses of video games have focused on what Smith ( 2006 ) has called “negative content patterns” (p. 57), most commonly violence and sexism. The advent of research on so-called serious games from the mid-2000s onwards has also brought about some content-analytic work in that area. However, those studies are still few and far between. Broadening the thematic scope of content analyses of video games is an important desideratum for future research.

Given the substantial challenges that arise if researchers want to produce their own coding materials from the games themselves, we believe that the use of external sources of coding material is an especially useful approach. In addition to materials that have been used in previous studies, such as magazine articles or ads, reviews from players are a very promising source of coding material as they are widely available online and can be analyzed using computational methods. Finally, we suggest that future content-analytic research on video games could also make use of video material from streaming platforms like Twitch and automated analysis of visual (image) content.

Relevant Variables in DOCA—Database of Variables for Content Analysis

Violent acts: https://doi.org/10.34778/3d

Video game genre: https://doi.org/10.34778/3f

Sexualization: https://doi.org/10.34778/3e

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Do Video Games Promote Violence? Answered by Research

There is a lot of debate about whether video games promote violence or not. Many experts believe that video games that encourage violence bring out violent tendencies in gamers. However, research has a clear answer.

Several studies have shown that video games increase aggression. Over the past five decades, studies have shown that engaging with violent media, including playing violent video games, increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior. However, aggressive behavior does not always lead to real-world violence and crime. Moreover, there are other more significant risk factors for real-world violence, than violent video games.

In this blog post, we will examine studies on whether video games promote violence or not, what experts think, and how video games affect the brain.

 If you are worried about someone's relationship with video games, take this quiz to gain more insight into why they play games:

Where Did We Get the Idea That Video Games Promote Violence?

Can playing video games lead to violence?

Even before video games existed, the idea that violent media results in violent behavior in youth was widely debated. People and news media often blamed television shows and movies with violent graphic scenes for the youth’s violent acts. In fact, over the past 50 years, researchers have conducted many studies that show that watching violent television, watching violent films, or playing violent video games increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior.

Anderson and co. published a comprehensive meta-analysis of the effects of violent video games. They concluded that the “evidence strongly suggests that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increase in aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect and decrease in empathy and prosocial behavior.”

However, Anderson says that violent media, including video games, are only among the many risk factors for aggressive and violent behavior. A healthy, well-adjusted person who gets exposed to a few risk factors, including violent video games, will not suddenly become a criminal. However, there is an impact of video games on aggression and anti-social behavior.

Click here to check out the parent’s guide to managing a short-tempered child/

Let’s discuss how violent video games affect your child’s brain and what you can do to wean your child off violent video games.

How Do Video Games Affect the Brain

Video games affect the brain in multiple ways. They affect our learning circuitry, emotional circuitry, and a psychological pattern called the triumph circuit. You can learn more about how video games affect the brain in this article. For now, we will go over the correlation between video games and violent behavior.

Numerous studies show that exposure to violent video games leads to a significant increase in aggression. Moreover, young men who are already prone to aggression are especially vulnerable to video games’ aggression-enhancing effects.

Some studies have tried to contest this finding. For example, Kuhn et al. conducted a longitudinal study that took a sample of 90 college students and divided them into three groups. For two months, one group played the violent video game Grand Theft Auto V, one played the generally considered prosocial game Sims 3, and one played no games. The researchers found no statistically significant changes in aggressive behavior among the three groups after two months.

However, it is essential to note that this study’s sample size was too small (90 initial participants, others dropping out further into the study). The mean age was 28, and more than half of the participants were women. That is much different from the young, 18 to 25-year-old males that are typically at risk of increased aggression from exposure to violent video games. Moreover, the participants were only advised to play for at least 30 minutes a day, which does not seem to be enough for a statistically significant behavior change, even over two months. Other studies that show similar results suffer from similar methodological issues.

All gamers know the surge of adrenaline that they experience when they find themselves in high-stress gameplay situations. The research backs this up — studies have found that video games trigger the fight-or-flight response, which causes the release of adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones prepare your body for high-stress situations by:

• Dilating your pupils to let in more light and thus, improve your vision.
• Blood flow to extremities gets reduced while blood flow to the muscles, brain, legs, and arms increases.
• The heartbeat and breathing rate increases to provide more oxygen to other parts of the body, to fuel its sudden increase in demand for fuel.
• The muscles tense and become primed for quick movement, which results in trembling.

The fight-or-flight response evolved to combat physical dangers. However, our minds and bodies cannot distinguish between real danger (an attack from a tiger) and fake danger (death in a video game). Therefore, the response is the same in either case. The body is not designed to sustain this response for hours. The fight or flight response is designed to kick in and help you get to safety and then turn off. However, when gamers play intense, violent video games for several hours, the fight-or-flight response stays “on” the entire duration. It results in prolonged secretion of adrenaline and cortisol.

Over time, persistent surges of adrenaline can damage your blood vessels , increase your blood pressure, and elevate your risk of heart attacks or stroke. It can also result in anxiety, weight gain, headaches, and insomnia.

Emotional Suppression

The amygdala is the part of our brain that governs negative emotions such as fear, anger, shame, etc. fMRI studies have shown that when we experience negative emotions and turn on a video game, the activity in the amygdala reduces. Therefore, video games suppress negative emotions.

Over time, this results in the development of a sub-clinical condition called alexithymia. Alexithymia is the inability to determine your inner emotional state. Men are especially susceptible to developing alexithymia. That is because societally, they are only encouraged to display anger.

When we suppress negative emotions such as fear, shame, and frustration, they don’t just vanish. They lie dormant and often come out during intense gaming sessions in the form of anger. That is one reason for gamer rage being so commonplace and possibly why video games increase aggression.

Do Violent Video Games Affect Children?

Children pick up behaviors through a process called observational learning. Overall, if your child gets exposed to many violent games, they are likely to develop some aggressive behaviors, especially if they play video games excessively.

Click here to check out this article on how to reduce your child’s time spent playing video games.

For kids and teens 5 to 18 years, experts recommend that parents place limits on time spent playing video games. Gaming should not take up time that would otherwise go towards getting enough sleep and physical activity. Parents should set limits on their kid’s gaming hours to keep gaming from affecting their schoolwork, chores, and physical activity.

Additionally, parents should also make sure that their child is playing video games suitable for their age group.

Entertainment Software Rating Board rates and labels all video games. Steer clear of any games they rate “M” for “mature.” Those are for ages 17 and up, and can contain heavy-duty violence, strong language, and sexual content. Also, keep in mind that even games that are “suitable for children” may contain cartoon violence.

Whether your child will become violent as a result of playing violent video games is not known. However, James Ivory, professor and researcher , says that when it comes to actual serious criminal violence, there’s virtually no evidence that video games matter.” Instead, other predictors of violent crime such as poverty, substance abuse, and child abuse seem to be much more relevant.

What if My Child Plays Excessive Video Games?

If your child or teenager struggles to reduce their gaming habit, then we can help. Ultimately, the most successful path forward to overcome video game addiction for 90% of kids is to become a healthy gamer. Building a healthy relationship with them and helping them overcome their video game addiction can reduce the effects of video games that promote violence.

Healthy Gamer Parent Coaching is a 12-week virtual coaching solution created by Dr. Alok Kanojia, known as Dr. K, the world expert on video game psychology. It covers the most frustrating, difficult, and common dynamics around excessive gaming.

• 12 Weeks of Parent Coaching: Work with your Healthy Gamer Coach in a group format with up to 5 other families to develop strategies and reflect on progress and setbacks in a supportive environment.
• 12 Learning Modules: Cover key concepts of gamer psychology, parent-child communication, and boundary-setting to create an alliance with your child.
• Approach your child’s unique circumstances and psychology in weekly 90-minute Parent Coaching Sessions with a Healthy Gamer Coach.

For 12 consecutive weeks, participants get access to a workshop and Q&A with Dr. K and weekly support groups led by Healthy Gamer Coaches. The dual support structure helps parents get started and follow-through in helping their children combat excessive gaming.

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Playing video games doesn't lead to violent behaviour, study shows

Analysis of 28 global studies dating back to 2008 found a minuscule positive correlation

Video games do not lead to violence or aggression, according to a reanalysis of data gathered from more than 21,000 young people around the world.

The researchers, led by Aaron Drummond from New Zealand’s Massey University, re-examined 28 studies from previous years that looked at the link between aggressive behaviour and video gaming, a method known as a meta-analysis.

The new report, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science on Wednesday, found that, when bundled together, the studies showed a statistically significant but minuscule positive correlation between gaming and aggression, below the threshold required to count as even a “small effect”.

“Thus, current research is unable to support the hypothesis that violent video games have a meaningful long-term predictive impact on youth aggression,” the report said.

Between them, the various studies included in the research dated back to 2008, and had reported a range of effects, including a small positive correlation between violence and video-game use in around a quarter of them and no overall conclusion in most of the rest, with one 2011 study finding a negative correlation.

One common argument for a negative effect of gaming is that small harms can accumulate over time: if a player ends every game slightly more aggressive then, over the long term, that might add up to a meaningful change in temperament. But the study finds no evidence for such an accumulation, and in fact finds evidence pointing in the opposite direction.

Studies consistently find that the “long-term impacts of violent games on youth aggression are near zero”, they write.

“We call on both individual scholars as well as professional guilds such as the American Psychological Association to be more forthcoming about the extremely small observed relationship in longitudinal studies between violent games and youth aggression,” the authors conclude.

While that link may be slim, other studies have shown interesting effects on wider emotional behaviour. Research from the University of New South Wales in 2018 , for instance, found that people who frequently played violent video games were less distracted by violent images in other contexts, a phenomenon the study author called “emotion-induced blindness”.

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