There is a study about gaming supposedly causing sexism. I took a look into it.
As a possible mediator, we measured masculine beliefs. We used 12 items (e.g., âBoys should be encouraged to find a means of demonstrating physical prowessâ and âIt is OK for a guy to use any and all means to âconvinceâ a girl to have sexâ; 1 = completely disagree to 7 = completely agree) from the revised Male Role Norms Inventory (MRNI-R; Cronbach Îą = .78) [27] Levant, Rankin, Williams, Hasan, & Smalley, 2010).
In other words, they put statements like âmen should be strongâ and âitâs ok for men to rape womenâ into one category to measure. So if you gave 7 to "men should be strongâ and 1 to "boys can rape girlsâ, you score 4 in a set of believes that includes âboys can rape girlsâ.
Difference (HSD) test indicated that participants who played a violent game identified with the character more than did participants who played a neutral game (d = 0.62, p = .003) or a violent-sexist game (d = 0.57, p = .04). No differences were found between the neutral and the violent-sexist games (p = .67).
Their violent-sexist games are GTA San Andreas and GTA Vice City, violent games are Half Life 1 and Half Life 2, neutral games are Dream Pinball 3D and Q.U.B.E. 2.
Dream Pinball 3D is a pinball simulator where the only thing players can identify with is the camera. Q.U.B.E. 2. isnât released yet, unless they mean the alpha version. Or they just mix it with original Q.U.B.E. I donât think that ps4 alpha has any character in playerâs avatar. Q.U.B.E. focuses on puzzles and doesnât have a playable named character, unless they played the Directorâs Cut version. But they donât specify this, they claim itâs somehow not yet released Q.U.B.E. 2.Â
So itâs confirmed that one of their neutral games has no character (in terms of the player avatar having anything that can be called âcharacterâ), and the other possibly also has no character.
In other words, the study proves that players identify with characters of a violent-sexist game as much as they identify with player-avatars that have no character.Â
Knowing this all about their terminology, letâs look at the results.
It seems that neutral games, which shouldnât make people more violent/sexists, arenât different in terms of empathy results with violent-sexists ones. Violent games actually have better empathy results. It seems that violence and sexism in games has no negative impact on people, and games such as Half-Life series have a positive one.
In other words the study doesnât prove that the type of a game has any negative impact on empathy.
Researches states that when it comes to the difference between males and females, male empathy and masculine believes (reminder, set of believes that includes âstrength is goodâ and ârape is goodâ) are greater affected by violent-sexists games. Somehow, they donât post any simple table of results like they did for both genders, instead they use their statistic jargon to mass with the casual readers.
As first support of our moderated mediational hypothesis, we found a significant indirect effect of the type of video game on empathy for female violence victims via increased masculine beliefs for males [-0.1846 (95% CI = -0.3984 to -0.0410)] but not for females [-0.0406 (95% CI = -0.1318 to 0.0097)] who played with a violent-sexist game. Â
Then they say that there was no such effect for violent-only and non-violent games.
Further, conditional indirect effects of type of video game on empathy for female violence victims were significant only for males in the violent-sexist game condition at values of identification with the game character greater than 4.2583 [-0.1920 (95% CI = -0.4668 to -0.0492] (see Fig 2).
In other words the study proves that you have less empathy towards female victims if you are a man that identifies with a criminal that is the player character of GTA.
The study proves that if you identify with a criminal, you have less empathy.
Only and only then the results were significant.
It would be pretty logical to reach such conclusion and call it a day, but right away the authors state:
These results suggest that violent-sexist games decreased empathy for female violence victims for boys who strongly identified with the violent game character, and did so by increasing masculine beliefs.
In others words the study only assumed that the game makes men less empathetic when they already identify with criminals. And they ran to the media with this assumption as a headline.
There is no confirmation that GTA made men identify with criminals, and there is no confirmation that GTA affected the empathy they had in the first place. This is only assumed.
But you donât have to trust the word of me, a random blogger. There is already a comment to this study that says the same.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/comment?id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fannotation%2F41a35f0a-fe57-42be-9f10-449417892f6d
In short, the authors have correctly identified in their text that there is no significant total effect of game on empathy (Results, Primary Results, paragraph 4). Instead, they have a significant moderated-mediation process model. While I understand that a significant indirect effect does not require a significant total effect, it would seem to suggest a delicate and nuanced interpretation of results is necessary.
The specificity of this double-moderated indirect effect, given that there is no significant total effect, suggests that care might be taken in the discussion. At times the authors are appropriately careful, saying that "This research] address[es ...] who is most likely to be harmed by violent-sexist video games." But at other times, the authors seem to speak too broadly, as though a total effect were found. "The present research shows that violent-sexist video games such as GTA reduce empathy for female violence victims, at least in the short term." The press release also runs the headline "Sexist video games decrease empathy for female violence victims", again suggesting that a total effect was found, despite the null result.
Furthermore, I am concerned as to the possibility of confounding in this study's causal arguments. Is it possible that those who are already low in empathy are more likely to identify with Grand Theft Auto's protagonist? And could a similar process not be responsible for differences in masculine beliefs? It is not clear to me that this can be ruled out. If it can be, I would be glad to learn how.
The media like Times are already taking for granted a study that manipulates the result for the sake of causing moral panic. In the conclusion the authors donât even bother to hide what they aim to prove.
Unfortunately, it appears that GTA might make the world a worse place for females.
The gaming media should deconstruct this study and point out its faults. But unlike the times of moral hysteria in name of Christian morality of family values, the gaming press has became a lapdog of mainstream media and their 3rd wave hysteria.