Many video games exclude female characters or present women in stereotyped and sexualized ways. Though "Grand Theft Auto" ("GTA"), for example, allows for a great degree of player freedom, it often presents women as fairly one-dimensional sexual playthings.

A lot of people worry about this. As noted by one "GTA" reviewer, in an otherwise positive review, "With nothing in the narrative to underscore how insane and wrong (misogyny) is, all the game does is reinforce and celebrate sexism."

A couple friends who are parents recently asked me in panicked tones about whether their child might act out pedophilia, necrophilia or rape in "GTA." No, these aren't playable acts. But do sexist games promote sexism in real life?

Last summer, Time wrote about a research article that claimed to provide the answer. Headlined "Here's What Sexist Video Games Do to Boys' Brains," the piece looked at an Italian study of male and female adolescents.

In the study, 154 teens were assigned to play either "sexist" games like "GTA," nonsexist but violent games or nonviolent games. The teens were also assessed for their empathy regarding pictures of girls who had been assaulted. Contrary to the implications of the Time piece, sexist games had no direct impact on empathy.

Nevertheless, the study authors concluded that a complex interaction between sexist games, male gender, masculine role norms and identification with game character reduced empathy.

If that sounds complicated, that's because it is. The complexity of these analyses raised red-flags among other journalists about the study being "overhyped." One journalist wrote, "In fact, on the question of whether video games decrease empathy for female violence victims, it found no straightforward evidence to suggest they do. This is a highly indirect finding that really shouldn't be freaking anybody out."

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In a reanalysis of this data, my colleague Brent Donnellan and I found the evidence for the effects of sexist games to be minimal. First, when we reexamined the more complex analyses, we discovered the results were a statistical fluke, not indicative of real effects. The original study authors could have analyzed their data multiple ways, most of which revealed no effect whatsoever for sexist games.

However, they only reported one analysis that did, a finding that is probably due to chance. When reanalyzed in a more straightforward manner, the effect disappeared.

Second, the data seemed to be poorly managed. In a typical experiment, people are randomly assigned to conditions. In this study, younger adolescents were mostly assigned to play sexist games, and older adolescents were mostly assigned to play nonsexist games. That's a big mistake. Given that empathy develops with age, this represents a problematic overlap of age and the games the youth played. Any results could simply be an age effect.

Ultimately, we confirmed that sexist games had no direct impact on empathy.

And other research evidence for the effects from sexist games has been weak, besides. One 2015 study from Germany found no evidence that playing sexist games among adolescents was associated with sexist beliefs later. Another study of college students found no relationship between sexist games and hostile sexism (the kind of anti-women attitudes most people worry about). This study did find that male gamers who played sexist games had higher "benevolent sexism," which includes beliefs that women have more positive characteristics than men and should be protected by men. Still, follow-up research is needed.

Though the connections between sexist video games and real-life sexism might be minimal, pushing the video game industry to include more and better female characters is a worthy goal. We continue to have issues with many games failing to include female characters or presenting them in objectified ways when they do. Games also reveal ongoing issues with sexism and misogyny in our culture, even if they don't cause them.

For instance, the recent game "Horizon Zero Dawn," which features a strong female protagonist, experienced a backlash of male gamers who refused to play a female-fronted game. This sexist backlash against female leads in games can further entrench industry reluctance to feature female leads, perpetuating a cycle that leaves both women characters and gamers isolated from gaming culture.

So, even if sexist games don't create sexist adolescents, games can function as a cultural platform where we can both discuss and confront sexism.

We're seeing progress in some recent games, such as the rebooted "Tomb Raider" and "Alice: Madness Returns," which feature strong female protagonists. Such characters, like the hero of "Horizon Zero Dawn," are featured for their strength and intelligence, rather than their attractiveness to men. And they feature interesting, smart stories that can be compelling to women and men players alike. Such games deserve to be supported with both critical praise and our wallets.

But we must be careful to separate good-faith moral advocacy from science. Media effects research, unfortunately, has a poor record on this account. Failing to make this distinction will hurt both the goal of increasing egalitarianism in games and the reputation of the social sciences.

Dr. Chris Ferguson (@CJFerguson1111) is a professor of psychology at Stetson University and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He is coauthor of the book "Moral Combat: Why the War on Violent Video Games is Wrong" and author of the mystery novel "Suicide Kings".





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