Violent, sexist games decrease empathy for real-life female victims - CNET

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Violent games that allow the player to treat women badly have real-world effects. Young men who strongly identify with the male protagonists of these games are less likely to care about women in the real world, a new study has found.

A team of researchers from the University of Milano Bicocca in Italy and Ohio State University in the US found that young men who play such games self-reported feeling less sympathy when shown pictures of female victims of violence. Their research has been published in the joual PLOS One.

"One of the best predictors of aggression against girls and women is lack of empathy," the study reads. "The present research shows that violent-sexist video games such as GTA reduce empathy for female violence victims, at least in the short-term. This reduction in empathy partly occurs because video games such as GTA increase masculine beliefs, such as beliefs that 'real men' are tough, dominant, and aggressive. Our effects were especially pronounced among male participants who strongly identified with the misogynistic game characters."

The study tasked 154 Italian high school students aged 15-20, both boys and girls, with playing one of three types of games. One group played Grand Theft Auto San Andreas or Grand Theft Auto Vice City, both of which feature women as strippers and prostitutes, among other secondary characters, which the player can use as sexual objects, beat up, and kill. All of the playable characters are male.

A second group played Half-Life 1 or Half-Life 2, which is violent, but in which women are not portrayed in a sexual way. Finally, a third group played Dream Pinball 3D or Q.U.B.E 2, neither of which features sexism or violence at all.

After playing these games, the players were shown one of photographs. One showed a young woman being held in the grip of a young man, who was raising his fist with his other hand. The other showed a young woman with a black eye, crying, with a young man in the background.

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The girls who played the game were not measurably affected by the game, and reported feeling similar levels of sympathy for the victims across all three groups. However, the young men who played the Grand Theft Auto games reported much less sympathy than the other two groups of young men.

The group who showed the less empathy was also the group most likely to have agreed with the statement "When I am playing, it feels as if I am my character."

"This finding gives us a better idea of what exactly a combination of violence and sexism in video games does to harm male players," said lead author Alessandro Gabbiadini of the University of Milano Bicocca in a statement.

"Violent video games are bad enough, but when you add sexism to them, that is especially toxic."

Co-author Brad Bushman of Ohio State University said that the young men who identified with their character in a video-game were more likely to agree that boys were within their rights to use any means necessary to convince a girl to sleep with them, or that young men needed to demonstrate their physical prowess.

"You may think the games are just harmless fun. But when boys play them and identify with the male characters in the game, it can lead to agreement with some pretty disturbing beliefs about masculinity and how to treat women," he said.