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Sex Differences in Competitiveness in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs)
Sex differences in the use of competitive tactics have been well established. Although many factors may contribute to these sex differences, according to social role theory (SRT), stereotypes and expectations about men's and women's typical social roles are crucial. We addressed the potent...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
SAGE Publications
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10303450/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35733406 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14747049221109388 |
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author | Deaner, Robert O. Dunlap, Lucretia C. Bleske-Rechek, April |
author_facet | Deaner, Robert O. Dunlap, Lucretia C. Bleske-Rechek, April |
author_sort | Deaner, Robert O. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Sex differences in the use of competitive tactics have been well established. Although many factors may contribute to these sex differences, according to social role theory (SRT), stereotypes and expectations about men's and women's typical social roles are crucial. We addressed the potential impact of social roles by studying massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), a setting where individuals represent themselves with avatars and thus enjoy the opportunity to compete without regard to the typical expectations and behaviors associated with men's and women's roles. We surveyed players via MTurk (63 women, 191 men) and Reddit (166 women, 1,326 men) regarding their frequency of engaging in five competitive behaviors and the sex and role of their primary avatar. As expected, there were reliable sex differences in competitiveness: men were more likely than women to engage in player-versus-player duels (MTurk d = 0.19; Reddit d = 0.51), do solo runs of difficult content (0.30, 0.35), and work to acquire expensive items (0.32, 0.19); women were more likely than men to seek in-game awards (−0.38, −0.36) and spend real-world money on expensive microtransactions (−0.16, −0.27). Contrary to SRT, these sex differences in forms of competitive behavior were generally unrelated to players’ chosen avatar sex or avatar role. These results instead indicate that sex differences in competitiveness largely reflect evolved predispositions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10303450 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | SAGE Publications |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-103034502023-08-17 Sex Differences in Competitiveness in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) Deaner, Robert O. Dunlap, Lucretia C. Bleske-Rechek, April Evol Psychol Original Research Article Sex differences in the use of competitive tactics have been well established. Although many factors may contribute to these sex differences, according to social role theory (SRT), stereotypes and expectations about men's and women's typical social roles are crucial. We addressed the potential impact of social roles by studying massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), a setting where individuals represent themselves with avatars and thus enjoy the opportunity to compete without regard to the typical expectations and behaviors associated with men's and women's roles. We surveyed players via MTurk (63 women, 191 men) and Reddit (166 women, 1,326 men) regarding their frequency of engaging in five competitive behaviors and the sex and role of their primary avatar. As expected, there were reliable sex differences in competitiveness: men were more likely than women to engage in player-versus-player duels (MTurk d = 0.19; Reddit d = 0.51), do solo runs of difficult content (0.30, 0.35), and work to acquire expensive items (0.32, 0.19); women were more likely than men to seek in-game awards (−0.38, −0.36) and spend real-world money on expensive microtransactions (−0.16, −0.27). Contrary to SRT, these sex differences in forms of competitive behavior were generally unrelated to players’ chosen avatar sex or avatar role. These results instead indicate that sex differences in competitiveness largely reflect evolved predispositions. SAGE Publications 2022-06-22 /pmc/articles/PMC10303450/ /pubmed/35733406 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14747049221109388 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
spellingShingle | Original Research Article Deaner, Robert O. Dunlap, Lucretia C. Bleske-Rechek, April Sex Differences in Competitiveness in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) |
title | Sex Differences in Competitiveness in Massively Multiplayer Online
Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) |
title_full | Sex Differences in Competitiveness in Massively Multiplayer Online
Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) |
title_fullStr | Sex Differences in Competitiveness in Massively Multiplayer Online
Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) |
title_full_unstemmed | Sex Differences in Competitiveness in Massively Multiplayer Online
Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) |
title_short | Sex Differences in Competitiveness in Massively Multiplayer Online
Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) |
title_sort | sex differences in competitiveness in massively multiplayer online
role-playing games (mmorpgs) |
topic | Original Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10303450/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35733406 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14747049221109388 |
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