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

PLoS One. 2016 Apr 13;11(4):e0152121. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0152121. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

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).

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Crime Victims / psychology*
  • Empathy*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Masculinity*
  • Sexism / psychology*
  • Video Games / psychology*
  • Violence / psychology*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

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.