Back to Search
Start Over
The Impact of Sexualized Video Game Content and Cognitive Load on State Rape Myth Acceptance
- Source :
- Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers in Psychology, Vol 12 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Frontiers Media, 2021.
-
Abstract
- The potential negative impact of sexualized video games on attitudes toward women is an important issue. Studies that have examined this issue are rare and contain a number of limitations. Therefore, it largely remains unclear whether sexualized video games can have an impact on attitudes toward women. This study examined the consequences of sexualized video game content and cognitive load (moderator) on rape victim blame and rape perpetrator blame (used as a proxy of rape myth acceptance), and whether the degree of humanness of the victim and of the perpetrator mediated these effects. Participants (N = 142) played a video game using sexualized or non-sexualized female characters. Cognitive load was manipulated by setting the difficulty level of the game to low or high. After gameplay, participants read a rape date story, and were then asked to judge the victim’s and the perpetrator’s degree of responsibility and humanness. Based on the General Aggression Model (GAM), it was hypothesized that playing the video game with a sexualized content would increase the responsibility assigned to the victim and diminish the responsibility assigned to the perpetrator. Further, degree of humanness of the victim and the perpetrator was expected to mediate this relation. The results were partially consistent with these predictions: Playing a video game containing sexualized female characters increased rape victim blame when cognitive load was high, but did not predict degree of humanness accorded to the victim. Concerning the perpetrator, video game sexualization did not influence responsibility, but partly influenced humanness. This study concludes that video games impact on attitudes toward women and this, in part, due to its interactive nature.
- Subjects :
- media_common.quotation_subject
lcsh:BF1-990
education
050801 communication & media studies
050109 social psychology
Dehumanization
sexualization
Blame
0508 media and communications
medicine
video games (psychology)
Psychology
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
Content (Freudian dream analysis)
Video game
attitude toward women
General Psychology
health care economics and organizations
media_common
Original Research
humanness
Aggression
cognitive load
05 social sciences
social sciences
rape myths acceptance
Moderation
Sexualization
lcsh:Psychology
behavior and behavior mechanisms
medicine.symptom
Social psychology
human activities
Cognitive load
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 16641078
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers in Psychology, Vol 12 (2021)
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....f36096757290d76fccaf945e573f4e8f