Abstract
The present study examines the short-term cognitive effects of playing a sexually explicit video game with female "objectification" content on male players. Seventy-four male students from a university in California, U. S. participated in a laboratory experiment. They were randomly assigned to play either a sexually-explicit game or one of two control games. Participants' cognitive accessibility to sexual and sexually objectifying thoughts was measured in a lexical decision task. A likelihood-to-sexually-harass scale was also administered. Results show that playing a video game with the theme of female "objectification" may prime thoughts related to sex, encourage men to view women as sex objects, and lead to self-reported tendencies to behave inappropriately towards women in social situations.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 77-88 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Sex Roles |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2010 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Gender schema
- Gender stereotype
- Lexical decision task
- Media sex
- Priming
- Sexual harassment
- Video game
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Gender Studies
- Social Psychology
- Developmental and Educational Psychology