Playing as a sexualized video game character does not increase women’s body dissatisfaction
Playing as a sexualized video game character does not increase women’s body dissatisfaction
Playing as a sexualized video game character does not increase women’s body dissatisfaction
By Eric W. Dolan
March 8, 2020
Summary
Playing a video game with a sexualized female character does not appear to impact women's self-objectification or body satisfaction, according to a new study published in Psychology of Popular Media Culture.
The findings suggest that video games have less impact on consumers than is sometimes claimed.
"I've been interested in media effects research for some time. It's an area that has seen people make some pretty big claims, ranging from video games causing mass shootings to thin-ideal models creating anorexia nervosa in women viewers," explained lead researcher Christopher J. Ferguson, a professor of psychology at Stetson University.
In the study, 98 female undergraduate students played one of two versions of the video game Tomb Raider for 30 minutes.
To obscure the purpose of the study, the participants then completed an unrelated pain tolerance task before completing assessments of self-objectification, body image dissatisfaction, sexist beliefs, and other measures.
The researchers found that women exposed to the more sexualized Lara Croft character were not more likely to have heightened self-objectification, body shame, or body satisfaction compared to those exposed to the non-sexualized character.
Nor was there any evidence that exposure to the sexualized Lara Croft character increased the participants' objectification of other women or sexist beliefs.
"Our study suggests that the impact of sexualization in games on women players is much less than people might imagine. Contrary to what social narratives suggest, playing as a sexualized avatar had no impact on women players' body dissatisfaction, nor did it make them more aggressive toward other women," Ferguson told PsyPost.
Previous research has found that women often compare their appearances to photos in magazines and on Facebook.
Rather, it is possible that the participants "Identified the sexualized female video game protagonist as fictional and thus not a realistic source of messaging about women's bodies."
Reference
Dolan, E. W. (2020, March 8). Playing as a sexualized video game character does not increase women's body dissatisfaction. Retrieved March 12, 2020, from https://www.psypost.org/2020/03/playing-as-a-sexualized-video-game-character-does-not-increase-womens-body-dissatisfaction-56042