According to a study, male players are more competitive against female characters in online role-playing games, even if they are controlled by a man.
If you want to win World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2 or any other massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)give preference to male characters. The reason ? A recent study assures that male players are more competitive towards a female character, even if the latter is actually controlled by a male.
THE male players are more combative against female characters
“Common stereotypes assume that men tend to be more aggressive, while women are more passive, and that in a competitive environment, men would strive harder to dominate while women would not. It is “Ieffect of dominance”“explain xinlei (Jack) Chenlead author of the research published in the journal Marketing Science. To verify this, the team took an interest in the world of online video games.
She thus obtained data from a Chinese MMORPG company including information on the gaming activities of the players, such as the number of fights in which they participate and their performance in these fights as well as elements on their identity such as gender and age. The final sample included 79,957 fights PVP (Player versus Player: player against player in French) among 20,144 unique players.
The analysis shows that male participants tend to perform better in mixed competitions, winning a higher win rate than female players. And this would not be linked to greater dexterity or knowledge of games… but their competitive spirit against women. Indeed, when they face female characters, their motivation and level of effort are greater. And the effect is also seen if the contestant directing the character is actually a man.
On the other hand, thehe women are not affected by the sex of their adversary: their performances are similar in all cases.
Stereotypes: hiding your identity online, the solution?
If the researchers confirmed that gender stereotypes appear during interpersonal competition and affect the outcome, they notice that “the reason for this is not that women are submissive, but rather, when men perceive their opponent as a woman, they are more likely to exert increased effort than they would if they perceived their competitor as a male“. For them, female players can break the existing male bias simply by concealing their gender during a competition.
“Through our research, we found that women did better when they actively concealed their gender in online video games”explains the expert. “To understand these results, you need to know that online video games can be a toxic environment for women. According to a survey by pew Research Center on online harassment in 2014, female gamers experience more severe harassment than male participants, such as stalking (to track in English, editor’s note)sexual harassment and sustained intimidation”recalls the author in a communicated.
