What is a True Gamer? The Male Gamer Stereotype and the Marginalization of Women in Video Game Culture

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.Women and men play video games in approximately equal numbers. Despite this similarity, video gaming is still strongly associated with men. A common justification for this stereotype is that, although women might play games, they should not be considered “true” or “hard-core” gamers because they play more casually and less skillfully compared to their male counterparts. In this contribution, we review the existing literature on gender and gaming to investigate the male gamer stereotype in terms of its accuracy, persistence, effects, and future perspective. We conclude that the stereotype varies in accuracy depending on the definition of “gamer.” We further argue that the persistence of this stereotype can be explained by the fact that almost all professional and highly visible figures in gaming culture are male. On the other hand, female players who achieve a moderate level of competence are rendered invisible or are actively marginalized. We argue that the effects of the male gamer stereotype can be harmful to women, precluding them from the positive outcomes of video game play such as enhanced access to fields of science, technology, and engineering

The gendered nature and malleability of gamer stereotypes

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Mary Ann Liebert via the DOI in this recordData availability: The data sets used in this paper are available at https://osf.io/jfh9b/?view_only=f7de84580b8242e5b965a3b32ecdb6b9. All materials can be found in the online supplement.Video gaming is seen as a male space. Female gamers are seen as atypical, have their competence challenged, and face more harassment than male gamers do. This precarious position is increasingly problematic as video gaming is now one of the most prevalent leisure activities, providing an opportunity to both forge and maintain friendships, and to achieve social status and career opportunities. We argue that the marginalization of female gamers is driven by masculine gamer stereotypes. We investigate the content and gendered nature of gamer stereotypes as well as their malleability in response to exposure to female gamers across two studies (NStudy 1=287; NStudy 2=176). We explore the content of gamer stereotypes and find that they contain both negative aspects, such as lacking social skills, and positive aspects, such as being competent and agentic. Both studies demonstrate that gamer stereotypes are more similar to stereotypes of men and boys than those of women and girls. In Study 2 we test whether exposure to a female gamer can change the negative association between female stereotypes and gamer stereotypes, finding support for this prediction. We conclude that gamer stereotypes are highly gendered but may be malleable: increasing the visibility of female gamers could potentially reduce the incompatibility between femininity and gaming

Applying the multi-threat framework of stereotype threat in the context of digital gaming.

Females often report experiencing stigmatisation pertaining to their competency in digital gaming communities. Employing the principles of the multi-Threat framework of stereotype threat, the current research examined the impact of gender-related stereotypes on females' gaming performance and related self-perceptions. In Experiment 1, 90 females were assigned to one of three conditions in which they were primed that their performance would be either diagnostic of their personal (self-As-Target) or gender group's ability (group-As-Target) or would be non-diagnostic of gaming ability (control). In Experiment 2, 90 females were primed that their performance would be judged by a group of other females (in-group source) or males (out-group source), or would be non-diagnostic of ability (control). Participants then completed a casual gaming task, as well as measures of competence beliefs, self-efficacy and self-esteem. Findings from Experiment 1 indicate that neither a self-As-Target nor a group-As-Target stereotype affected significantly gaming performance, or gamerelated self-efficacy, self-esteem and competency beliefs. Findings from Experiment 2 reveal further that females' gaming performance and associated self-perceptions were not impacted significantly by an in-group or out-group source of stereotype threat. The discussion turns to potential explanations for these findings, proposing that females may not perceive negative gender-gaming stereotypes to be an accurate representation of their personal or social group's gaming ability. We also discuss the implications of the experimental design and difficulty, as well as the potential for domain identification to moderate performance outcomes under stereotype threat