User:Count macaroon/sandbox

Studies

One investigation conducted at Lenior-Rhyne College examined the link between playing violent video games containing sexualized game characters and violence against women. Researchers hypothesized that being exposed to sexualized video game avatars (ie. macho men, scantily-clad women) would make participants more condoning of sexual harassment and rape. Two research questions were also devised. The first of which speculated if the sex of the participants would shape their views towards sexual harassment and how they would react upon viewing the sexualized video game avatars. The second research question pondered how the sex of participants would influence their attitudes towards rape.

The experiment had one hundred and eighty one participants all of which were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group. Individuals in the experimental group were given the task of viewing a PowerPoint presentation containing images of sexualized video game characters from games such as Resident Evil, Gears of War, and so on. In the control group, students were exposed to images of highly-respected individuals (US senators and congresspersons) such as Senator Mary Landrieu. Afterwards, both groups read about an actual account of sexual harassment that happened to a female student, taken from The Silent Treatment by Naomi Wolf.

The results of the investigation supported hypothesis one, that participants would have an altered view on sexual harassment after short-term exposure to sexualized media content. Specifically, males were found to be more tolerant of the real-life case scenario of sexual harassment after they were exposed to the sexualized video game avatars. There was not sufficient evidence to support that the gender of the participants was the only significant factor in this analysis. Interestingly, as males became more tolerant of sexual harassment, females that viewed the same demeaning, stereotyped images of women became less tolerant. Even compared to the females that viewed images of respected and professional political figures, the females that viewed demeaning ones still had a lower tolerance for sexual harassment. It seems that, for these females, seeing women under-represented and overtly sexualized motivates them to advocate for the just treatment of women. In addition to these findings, a significant link between long-term exposure to violent video games and pro-violence attitudes towards women were found.