There sexualization in video games does not produce damage in players and female players. This is what a new affirms scientific study Posted in Computers in Human Behavior. Basically, playing video games with certain titles would not lead to the development of misogyny or the development of mental illnesses.
Quiet, one of the characters from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Often i female characters in video games they are represented in a highly sexualized way, although the trend has been declining in recent years. Be that as it may, it seems that anyone who feared this was causing an increase in misogyny was wrong.
Christopher J. Ferguson, one of the authors of the study, commented on the results, obtained using a statistical technique known as meta-analysis, which requires crossing the results of several studies, stating that “I’ve been studying the effects of video games for twenty years now. on gamers, mostly focusing on violence.I believe that many now accept the fact that there is no relationship between violent video games and violent assaults or crime.
Despite this, people still have doubts about sexualization and are wondering if games make players more sexist towards women or if women are less satisfied with their bodies or have other ailments after playing them. It is a much smaller field of research than that of violence, so we hope to be able to shed some light on it. “
Ferguson and his team performed a meta-analysis of eighteen studies that predicted some exposure to sexualized video games. Fifteen studies have measured aggression towards women or the emergence of sexist behaviors, ten have also focused on effects such as depression, body representation or anxiety.
The researchers failed to locate a statistically relevant link between video games and sexist behaviors or psychological well-being.
Ferguson: “In general, the moral panic towards video games and sexualization follows the classic pattern of the debate on the medium. So many hyperbole and moral scandals, but very little evidence showing the damage caused by video games to players and female players.”
For Ferguson, therefore, the problem does not arise from the point of view of public health, which is not threatened by video games. This does not mean that we cannot ask for a minor sexualization of video game characters, which is indeed an excellent cause, specifies the scientist, only that the scarecrow of alleged damage that cannot be demonstrated should not be used.
Ferguson went even further by calling the media allegations scapegoats for social problems.
