Ruth Festl

Sexist Games=Sexist Gamers? A Longitudinal Study on the Relationship Between Video Game Use and Sexist Attitudes

From the oversexualized characters in fighting games, such as Dead or Alive or Ninja Gaiden, to the overuse of the damsel in distress trope in popular titles, such as the Super Mario series, the under- and misrepresentation of females in video games has been well documented in several content analyses. Cultivation theory suggests that long-term exposure to media content can affect perceptions of social realities in a way that they become more similar to the representations in the media and, in turn, impact ones beliefs and attitudes. Previous studies on video games and cultivation have often been cross-sectional or experimental, and the limited longitudinal work in this area has only considered time intervals of up to 1 month. Additionally, previous work in this area has focused on the effects of violent content and relied on self-selected or convenience samples composed mostly of adolescents or college students. Enlisting a 3 year longitudinal design, the present study assessed the relationship between video game use and sexist attitudes, using data from a representative sample of German players aged 14 and older (N=824). Controlling for age and education, it was found that sexist attitudes--measured with a brief scale assessing beliefs about gender roles in society--were not related to the amount of daily video game use or preference for specific genres for both female and male players. Implications for research on sexism in video games and cultivation effects of video games in general are discussed.

Militaristic Attitudes and the Use of Digital Games

From their beginnings until today, digital games have been a substantial part of what has been labeled the “military–entertainment complex” deeply imbued with militaristic messages and imagery. Within cultivation research, this enhanced exposure to war and militarism is supposed to be associated with the adoption of military norms and thinking. Concepts on narrative persuasion specify this relationship between certain narratives and the adoption of story-inherent beliefs. Based on these theoretical concepts, the present study tries to investigate the relationship between aspects of gaming and militaristic attitudes. We carried out a representative survey of 4,500 gamers with an added control group of 500 nongamers. Militaristic attitudes were measured using a newly developed multidimensional militarism scale. Structural equation modeling did not reveal any relationship between gaming and militaristic attitudes. Moreover, neither the gaming type (multiplayer vs. single) nor the gaming frequency or a preference for shooter games was significantly related to militarism.

A Longitudinal Analysis of Gaming- and Non-Gaming-Related Friendships and Social Support among Social Online Game Players

ABSTRACT Research examining online games often focuses on their potential to negatively impact players. One of the most common concerns is that playing online with others can displace offline relationships and, consequently, detrimentally affect one’s level of “offline” social support. However, there has been little empirical evidence supporting these causal claims. The current study addresses this by outlining a longitudinal analysis between gaming- and non-gaming-related friendships and social support among a representative sample of social online players (i.e., people who play online video games with others). The results indicate that social online video game play with online or offline friends is not related to perceived social support, positively or negatively, cross-sectionally or longitudinally. Taken together, these results dispute the long-held claims of the social displacement hypothesis and instead suggest that social online video game play does not have negative real-world consequences on players’ offline friendships or levels of offline social support.

Longitudinal patterns of involvement in cyberbullying: Results from a Latent Transition Analysis

In the present study, we used Latent Transition Analysis as an innovative approach in cyberbullying research in order to detect multi-facetted involvement patterns. Since developmental aspects of cyberbullying are still poorly understood, we analyzed the stabilities and transition probabilities of these involvement patterns across time using longitudinal survey data. Based on a three-wave panel survey among 1723 pupils (1215 years old), we identified a five-latent status model to best fit the data. Apart from a large group of non-involved pupils, there were four moderately to heavily involved cyberbullying classes, all characterized by a co-occurrence of perpetration and victimization experiences. We found two moderate and content-specific classes of cyberbullying: gossiping patterns that were predominant among girls and insulting patterns that rather appeared among male and lower-educated adolescents. Moreover, we revealed a heavily victimized group (with mild perpetration) and a very small class of heavy perpetrator-victims. Transition probabilities showed that cyberbullying behavior was quite stable over time. All cyberbullying classes comprised perpetration and victimization experiences.A small class of adolescents was intensively involved in all forms of cyberbullying.Girls were more involved in gossiping, boys in insulting forms of cyberbullying.Pupils who were not involved in cyberbullying mostly stayed non-involved over time.Heavy involved pupils transitioned into less frequently involved classes over time.

Perpetrators on the internet

Although research on cyberbullying has grown rapidly in the last years, holistic explanation approaches are still rare. In a first step, the present study discusses a theoretically derived, integrative model explaining a cyberbullies behavior referring to individual and structural influencing factors. This model was empirically tested among a sample of 1428 German high school pupils within a two-wave panel survey. Additionally, it was investigated whether the explanation patterns vary depending on the particular audience reached by the cyberbullying behavior. The results showed that technical resources enhanced the perpetration mediated via higher levels of perceived behavioral control. In contrast, social resources and norms also directly favored the perpetration of cyberbullying, however, only if this was witnessed by a certain audience. It is assumed that there is a group of cyberbullies who use the behavior as an instrumental strategy in order to reach socially motivated goals. The perpetration of cyberbullying can be considered a very stable behavior.The influence of technical resources is completely mediated via cognitive processes.Socially more and less preferred pupils are likely to become cyberbullies.Non-public forms are mainly explained by individual parts and traditional bullying.Cyberbullying in front of an audience is more strongly guided by social indicators.

Aggression and Preference for First-Person Shooter and Action Games: Data From a Large-Scale Survey of German Gamers Aged 14 and Above

Cross-sectional studies on video game violence and aggression have yielded contradictory results. Parts of this inconclusiveness can be attributed to the limitation to particular age groups. The present study investigated the relationship between preference for action and first-person shooter (FPS) games and aggression for the groups of adolescents (14–18), younger (19–39), and older adults (40+) in a sample of German gamers (N = 4,500). The strength of the association differed between age groups. Even after controlling for gender, education, social support, self-efficacy, and overall video game use, we found a significant relationship between preference for action and FPS games and physical aggression that was strongest for the adolescents. We found no such association for anger and verbal aggression. The results indicate that potential selection or socialization effects are likely to differ with age and that research on video games and aggression can benefit from the inclusion of more heterogeneous samples.