An Examination of Specific Situation and Person Factors in Online Video Game Sexual Harassment

Tang WY

Thesis (doctoral or post-doctoral)

Abstract

Online video game sexual harassment has become a serious issue pervading the video game community. Women players have faced many instances of online sexual harassment due to their perceived intrusion into a male-dominated cultural environment. The current study examined the causal relationships between social identity threats and sexual harassment. The social identity threats were randomly represented either as a feminist, traditional, or anonymous female partner the male participants interacted with online. They played with the female partner in a video game where she outperformed them. The male participants were randomly assigned to send jokes either to their female partner or to an innocent female bystander. Some jokes were sexist, giving the opportunity to sexually harass their female target. Results revealed that male participants sent more sexist jokes to their female partner than to the innocent female bystander. Several personality traits predicted the number of sexist jokes sent. Implications for online sexual harassment are discussed.

Details zur Publikation

Release year: 2016
Language in which the publication is written: English
Event: Columbus, Oh
Link to the full text: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc\_num=osu1452271099