1 BACKGROUND

Since their commercial introduction into society, beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, video games have become an integral facet of popular culture. They have also attracted considerable controversy. In more recent years, particular controversy has emerged over sexualised content in games. Put broadly, these would include games that present female characters in a highly sexual light, where their sexual characteristics are their most distinguishing qualities. Grand Theft Auto, for instance, is often considered a highly sexualised game given that female characters are often portrayed as prostitutes, strippers or in other highly sexualised roles. Some scholars have sought to investigate whether sexualised content in games might produce sexist attitudes in players.

1.1 Video games and sexism Since about 2010, several content analyses of video games have revealed female characters tend to be underrepresented, but when they are included in games, they are presented as sexual objects (Beasley & Collins‐Standley, 2002; Williams, Martins, Consalvo, & Ivory, 2009). There is anecdotal evidence that the situation may have begun to change since 2009, with more female characters and stronger roles for them. One recent content analysis supports these anecdotal observations (Lynch, Tompkins, van Driel, & Fritz, 2016).

1.2 Theories as to why sexualised content in games may or may not influence sexist attitudes Various theories have been offered as to why video game content may influence player attitudes or behaviours. Such theories generally fall under the broadly related categories of “cultivation models.” They posit that fictional media are powerful tools for learning. From such an approach, referred to collectively as the Cultivation approach, exposure to fictional media content that is sexualised in nature can be expected to cultivate sexualised representations of women in players' minds related to attitudes that are described as sexist. If this is the case, we might expect that an increase in sexism could then relate to other outcomes such as decreased empathy for victims, particularly female victims of rape. It is argued that sexist individuals may be more inclined to adopt rape myths, such as that women often say “no” but mean “yes,” or deserve to be raped if they dress provocatively (Rollero & Tartaglia, 2019). Thus, a sexist attitude may include placing greater responsibility for rape on the female victims of rape. By contrast, other models, particularly from an evolutionary approach, tend to differentiate between the importance of fictional media and real‐life events. For instance, the catalyst model (Ferguson et al., 2008) posits that negative outcomes such as aggression or body dissatisfaction arise primarily through an interaction of genetic predisposition with early childhood environment. The catalyst model specifically suggests real‐life events are far more powerful than fictional ones. Fictional media may sometimes have minor influence on the style of a behaviour (Surette & Maze, 2015) but not on whether the behaviours occur. In relation to sexualised video games, the contrast between the cultivation approach and the catalyst model is fairly straightforward. From the cultivation perspective, we ought to observe a correlation between exposure to sexualised content in video games and sexist attitudes. According to the catalyst model, we should not expect to find a correlation of significant magnitude.

1.3 Prior evidence on sexualised content in games Results of prior research have been mixed regarding what impact “sexist” video games may have on players. Part of the difficulty may come in delineating exactly what a “sexist” game is. A clear operationalisation of “sexist video game” may prove curiously elusive. Similar issues have also plagued definitions of “violence” in games, noting “violence” is not a monolithic construct as often it is used in the literature (Tamborini, Weber, Bowman, Eden, & Skalski, 2013). In most studies, “sexist” games appear to be represented mainly by sexualised images of female characters in games. Henceforth, the term “sexualised” video game will be used rather than “sexist” given the latter is a subjective judgment and the former arguably more precise. The concept of sexism as an outcome or dependent variable also lacks clarity. Hostile sexism refers to misogyny or holding negative and hateful views of women. By contrast, benevolent sexism is characterised by beliefs in the moral and social superiority of women, and a protective attitude towards females (Glick & Fiske, 2011). The importance of this distinction can be witnessed in one interesting study (Stermer & Burkley, 2015). Men who played more sexualised games did not display higher scores of hostile sexism, but a small correlation with benevolent sexism did exist. An analysis of the wording of the benevolent sexism items, however, reveals that, here, interpretation may be even more difficult. Many items are worded in such a way that it is unclear if higher scores indicate benevolent sexism or the absence of hostile sexism, for example “Women are more moral than men.” Some experimental research suggests sexualised games may have some short‐term impact on sexist beliefs. One study, which noted cognitive themes related to sexism, could be primed by a sexualised game during a lexical decision task (Yao, Mahood, & Linz, 2010). The design of this study may not, however, have been optimal as the games used were poorly matched, potentially introducing confounds (Adachi & Willoughby, 2011). By contrast, one longitudinal study (Breuer, Kowert, Festl, & Quandt, 2015) found no evidence that exposure to sexualised games among adults was associated with later sexist attitudes. The Breuer et al. study employed a 3‐year longitudinal design studying German players of 14 and older. Neither overall video game play nor exposure to particular genres high in sexualisation content were related to higher sexist attitudes 3 years later. To date, this is one of very few longitudinal designs on this topic. In a later study, Bègue, Sarda, Gentile, Bry, and Roché (2017) found a statistically significant but arguably trivial impact on sexism for video game playing (r = 0.07), but no impact of television. One study by Fox, Bailenson, and Tricase (2013) provided an interesting insight into female gamers and their use of sexualised avatars. Results were complex and difficult to interpret in the light of traditional media effect theories. Women who interacted in virtual reality using a sexualised avatar with their own face included tended to endorse higher rape myth acceptance compared to control conditions, but women who had sexualised avatars with faces that were not their own showed less rape myth acceptance compared to control conditions. As such, it remains unclear whether sexualisation per se is a clear causal component. Another recent experiment (Beck & Rose, in press) involving male players suggested that playing a sexualised game such as Grand Theft Auto may actually result in lower rape myth acceptance long‐term. A third recent experiment (Read, Lynch, & Matthews, 2018) found no significant impact for sexualised games on sexist attitudes. As with studies that have purported to find effects, these latter two are not without limitations. For instance, Beck and Rose (in press) employ only a small sample (n = 60) with games (Grand Theft Auto V and Madden NFL 12) that may not have been well matched. Read et al. (2018), by contrast, had a sample of 300, with a sophisticated design. Their manipulation, however, like that of Fox et al., (2013), is more applicable to sexualised avatars than gameplay itself. Lastly, a controversial experiment by Gabbiadini, Riva, Andrighetto, Volpato, and Bushman (2016) examined the impact of playing sexualised video games on adolescents' empathy towards a female victim of assault. No direct impact of sexualised content was found, but when the authors employed a complicated multipart mediation/moderation model, they found some impact of video games. However these results were not confirmed in a reanalysis that we performed (Ferguson & Donnellan, 2017a; see also Gabbiadini, Bushman, Riva, Andrighetto, & Volpato, 2017; Ferguson & Donnellan, 2017b) and it was revealed that randomisation to condition did not, in fact, occur as was claimed. Younger players were non‐randomly assigned to sexualised game conditions. Thus, this study does not provide evidence for a causal effect.

1.4 Trait aggression and sexist attitudes When studying acts of violence, criminologists have argued multivariate models which control for theoretically relevant constructs are essential when investigating links with media experiences (Savage, 2004). This is because evidence suggests that trait aggression develops early through a combination of genetic and early environment factors (Lubke, McArtor, Boomsma, & Bartels, 2018) and remains largely stable from early childhood. Recent long‐term analyses also suggest that aggressive traits are not predicted by violent game play specifically (Smith, Ferguson, & Beaver, 2018). Other evidence, however, suggests early aggressiveness can predict later violent game play (Breuer, Vogelgesang, Quandt, & Festl, 2015). Thus, trait aggression is a sound candidate for a control variable for violent content. Current evidence suggests trait aggression may predict sexist attitudes (Sierra, Santos‐Iglesias, Gutiérrez‐Quintanilla, Bermúdez, & Buela‐Casal, 2010) and empathy (Batanova & Loukas, 2014). Thus, trait aggression is a reasonable control variable when examining video game impacts on sexist attitudes.