Don’t Talk Dirty to Me: How Sexist Beliefs Affect Experience in Sexist Games

Research on sexism in digital games has suggested that women self-select out of playing sexist games; however, assuming a homogenous gender-based response does not account for the diversity of identities within a gender group. Gender-incongruent responses to recent events like #gamergate implies that the gender of the participant is not paramount to experience, but that their beliefs about gender roles are. To explore the role of sexist beliefs on experience in sexist games, we created three versions of a game that were identical except for the presence of sexist imagery and/or dialogue. We show that enjoyment of sexist games is not predicted by player gender, but by the player’s preexisting beliefs about gender. Furthermore, avatar identification is the pathway through which enjoyment is facilitated. Finally, sexist dialogue does not improve the play experience for anyone – rather it harms experience for players of all genders who do not hold sexist beliefs. Author