How about checking out this buzzy research with us: Does Sexualization in Games Affect People? According to new research published on ScienceDirect , sexualization in games doesn't appear to harm players. The results indicate that playing video games doesn't lead to misogynistic views or harmful mental health outcomes.
As such, female characters are often attractive and scantily clad in many games, however some people have raised concerns that the sexualized representation of women has negative effects on players.
In short, to better understand whether playing video games is associated with decreased player well-being or increased misogyny, the study authors used a statistical technique known as meta-analysis to systematically evaluate the results of previous research.
Does Sexualization in Games Affect People or Not?
"I've been studying the effects of video games on players for two decades , most of them on violence. I think most people have come to accept that there is no relationship between violent video games and aggression or violent crime," explained study author Christopher J. Ferguson, a professor of psychology at Stetson University.
However, people still have a lot of questions about sexualization and whether games make male players more sexist toward women, or whether female players experience more body dissatisfaction and other well-being issues . It's a much smaller field of research than violence, so we hoped to bring some clarity," she added.
Ferguson and his research team conducted a meta-analysis of eighteen relevant studies. All studies included a measure of exposure to general or sexualized video games. Fifteen of the studies measured aggression toward women or sexist attitudes, while ten studies measured outcomes related to depression, body image, or anxiety. However, the researchers failed to find a statistically significant relationship between video games and sexist attitudes or psychological well-being.
In general, the "moral panic" about video games and sexualization more or less follows the "closed-minded" pattern of the video game debate . Lots of hyperbole and moral outrage, but very little evidence that video games are causing any "harm" to male or female players, he added.
As a purely 'public health' issue, this doesn't seem like a major concern. This doesn't mean people can't advocate for better representation of women in games. They just need to be careful not to make "harmful" claims that can be easily discredited, calling into question what might otherwise be reasonable advocacy targets. The researchers also assessed the quality of the studies, examining factors such as pre-registration, standardized measures, independent ratings of video game content, and the use of control variables .
Conclusion about the study
The main caveat is simply that many of the studies aren't very good. The good news is that high-quality studies were less likely to find evidence of negative effects than lower-quality studies. In some cases, academics likely contributed their personal moral views to the studies, albeit unintentionally. Granted, this is still a fairly small area of research, but these initial data have been so unsatisfactory that I'm not sure there's much to be learned here,” he clarified.
Of course, we go through these cycles of blaming the media for social problems. At least with fictional media, the evidence generally reveals that we're likely scapegoating the media and that fiction rarely causes social problems. Again, to be fair, advocating for better representation of women in games can be a worthy cause, even if games don't cause negative effects. I support these efforts; I just hope advocates don't misrepresent the evidence as part of their efforts.
Let me know what you think of this new study in the comments. The featured image in this post is from the game Prison Princess by qureate.
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Via: ScienceDirect and Kudasai
