Yes, the topic simply never gets old. Sexism is one of the most significant issues on the path to equality in the real world, which is why researchers are also examining social behavior in online games in this context. A new study now shows: Women have to play an attractive female character if they want help.
Blood Elves Yay, Orcs Nay
To measure the attractiveness of avatars in “World of Warcraft,” they have categorized them into three groups. Blood Elves are considered “very attractive,” Night Elves “moderately attractive,” and Orcs as “only slightly attractive.” The researchers set out as both male and female representatives of the respective races and approached a total of 2300 players to ask for help.
Either for a small favor, such as explaining how to get to a certain location, or a big favor, such as accompanying them to the location itself. Additionally, the researchers clearly signaled whether a man or a woman was behind the character by incorporating the player’s gender into their questions (“Can you help a girl/guy out?”).
Men can look however they want, women cannot
The sad result of the study was that it does not matter to men what kind of avatar they control. The expected willingness to help was always the same, completely independent of the chosen race or character’s gender. On the other hand, women have to play a widely regarded “attractive” heroine to experience the same level of willingness to help. Frank Waddell, one of the co-authors of the study, explains this phenomenon by stating that human reactions to stereotypes and norms follow us from the real world into the virtual one. In other words: Because attractive women are helped more quickly in reality, this also happens in the game, even though they are hidden behind an avatar we assess instead of the woman itself.
Recommended on the topic: Sexism in MMORPGs – Absurdity in Decisions and Body Proportions
Cortyn comments: I think very little of the study. Although some findings are indeed helpful, the researchers seem to have completely overlooked daily life within online worlds. They reached the participants with questions like “Can you help out a girl?” and anyone who has spent more than a few hours in an MMO knows: Those who present so obviously that “she” is a woman attract attention, usually very consciously. Women and men know this, which is why such statements are often avoided. Furthermore, I find the categorization into “very attractive” (Blood Elves) and “moderately attractive” (Night Elves) to be more than a little arbitrary, although this categorization is likely based on some evaluation…
I can’t find much value in the study either, because especially on the internet we are rarely “man”, “woman”, or “demon”, but primarily “gamer”. The real gender plays no role for most, at least that’s my experience. What do you think?
via wired.de, source news.psu.edu
