Sexist male gamers probably suck at gaming, studies show

It’s sadly no surprise that sexist behaviour is quite rampant in typically male-dominated environments, like the tech and gaming industry, and now we have a study to prove it. This study by the Kasumovic Lab had shown that sexist behaviour directed towards female gamers is well and alive, especially from male gamers who suck at gaming.

Yup, you read that right.

This conclusion was drawn by analysing 163 games of Halo 3 played last year, featuring 189 speaking male gamers. As pointed out by the study, it’s not that “women did not play, just that they did not speak”—which reinforces the fact that female gamers are part of an environment that is strongly skewed towards the male perspective.

What is interesting, though, is that the researchers purposefully chose Halo 3 out of all the multi-player games available because its avatars are covered head-to-toe with armour. Thus, players can only be differentiated by their armour colour, rather than facial features or body type. In addition, they aren’t hypersexualised, which might decrease the “overt sexism seen in most online competitive games”, minimising the game environment’s effect.

The result? Skills do play a part in determining how many positive and negative statements are directed towards both male and female teammates. The catch, however, is that poorer performance (as defined by lesser kills and more deaths) resulted in more negative statements towards the female voice, and an increase in positive and neutral statements towards the male voice. On the other hand, gamers who are more skilled are actually more encouraging.

“Low-status and low-performing males have the most to lose as a consequence of the hierarchical reconfiguration due to the entry of a competitive woman,” reads the report. “Higher-skilled (i.e. more dominant) males do not behave in this manner as there is no need for them to reinforce their dominance to maintain their attractiveness.”

Well, some may argue that Halo 3 gamers are not representative of the entire gaming population, but you have to admit that this is a pretty accurate impression of guys who play games like Halo 3. So my fellow female gamers, if someone were to spew some sexist crap during a game, know that it’s probably because they are probably compensating for their lack of skills.