Female gamers haven't had it easy. Their avatars are highly sexualized, a woman criticizing the video game world had to cancel an appearance due to threats of a mass shooting and Gamergate was born.
We know that threats of violence affect female gamers in the real world, but with 48 percent of controllers in the hands of women, how does it affect their game?
A recent study shows that when the trash talking turns to sexual threats, such as rape, "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me" doesn't apply. "Most women players understand trash talking and having their playing skill insulted, even if they don't like it," said Jesse Fox, a professor of communication at Ohio State University. "But what disturbs them is being targeted simply for being a woman. They don't easily forget those comments and continue to think about them when they're done playing."
Another study published in Computers of Human Behavior found that "performance and affective responses elicited by the Stereotype Threat Condition were more negatively affected in case of strongly identified gamers, highly competitive women, and/or avid players when compared with the other conditions."
In other words, reinforcing negative stereotypes of female gamers negatively affects the game performance of girls and women who play video games.
Lotte Vermeulen, of iMinds-MICT-Ghent University, led a group of researchers and 100 female test subjects who were split into three groups. In order to better understand "stereotype threat," the first group was shown a list of high scores dominated by male names and avatars. The second group viewed a list full of high scoring female names and avatars while the third group was shown a list of gender neutral names and avatars.
The first group of women reported signs of stereotype threat, such as a lack in confidence in their abilities. The anxiety is particularly intense among experienced players who identify themselves as "gamers." If a woman doesn't tie herself as strongly to the label "gamer," her anxiety and performance didn't take as large of a hit.
Women who game just as much as men are much less likely to identify as a "gamer" than their male counterparts, the study's authors concluded. "Distancing themselves from the gamer identity may be a defense mechanism lessening the psychological impact of negative stereotypes against female gamers," wrote David Hayward, a public health research scientist not involved with the study. "The experiment also helps to show how these negative expectations can become self-fulfilling prophesies."
Follow Kimberly M. Aquilina on Twitter at @KimESTAqui.
