World of Warcraft Players Impacted by Stereotypes that Extend from the Real to the Virtual

Stereotypes may not just persist in the real world; they may also persist in virtual worlds. Scientists have found that the stereotypes related to gender and appearance that burden women in real life could follow them into virtual ones.

In this latest study, the researchers examined how people interacted with avatars in an online game. The researchers used six different avatars to study reactions to help requests among 2,300 players of the online game, World of Warcraft. The avatars represented male and female creatures across three different levels of attractiveness, which were previously evaluated as high, medium and low.

During an online session, a researcher would approach a player with a request for directions in the game. To test the magnitude of the favor, the researcher either asked the player to provide directions to a site in game, or asked the player to actually guide the researcher to the site.

"Overall, many of the same gender and sexual stereotypes seem to permeate the online worlds," said Franklin Waddell, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The study supports the idea that our responses to stereotypes and norms follow us from real life into virtual environments."

In fact, the researchers found that women received less help from fellow players than men when they operated an unattractive avatar and when they used a male avatar. However, a man would receive the same amount of help either way.

"Although women are typically less penalized for engaging in cross-sex behavior than men in offline settings, we found an opposite pattern in the online setting, such that men were allowed to control either a male or female avatar without penalty, whereas women were penalized for controlling an opposite-sex avatar," said Waddell. "In other words, when the stereotype would typically benefit women, the pattern was flipped in the virtual world, allowing men to engage in 'gender bending' with their avatar, whereas women were not encouraged to. So it truly is a lose-lose for women in online settings, according to our study."

The findings are published in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media.

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