8/9/2019 Girls, Giggles and Gaming - Sarah Hewitt

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Girls, Giggles and GamingUnderstanding Why Misogynist Abuse Happens In The World Of

Video Games:An Interdisciplinary Approach

Soc

ial

Psych

olo

gy:

Social

Cognition

Social PsychologyThe scientific study of behaviour andmental processes.

Is it deindividuationthat leads toabuse (the crowd or mob mentality)?

Is this aided by priming: therepetition of stereotypesin themedia and popular culture, andespecially in video games?

Perhans the normative socialinfluencepersuades us that wemust go along to get along?

All these approaches may help toexplain why a) misogyny seems tohave pervaded western ciulture inspite of the feminist movement, andb) why some people engage ismisogynist abuse online when theywould not do so in face-to-facecommunications.

Behavioural Perspective

Conditioning and reinforcement.

Psychoanalytic PerspectiveSome aspects of Freuds work anddreams.

Biological PerspectiveThe brain, neurotransmitters,hormones etc.

Subjectivist PerspectiveHuman behaviour is a function ofthe perceived , not the objective,world.

Cognitive PerspectiveReturn to focus on mentalprocesses, interpreted throughbehaviour.

#gamergate

46% of gamers aged16-64 are female.Most games:- feature male-genderedactivities;- are advertised to males;- feature males in theadvertising.Most games that feature

women represent them aspassive or sexualised.

Feminist PsychologyMathematics:Network Analysis

Feminist PsychologyAre women different? Do they behave differently, or is itreally about the difference gender makes? If we acceptthat behaviour is influenced by context, which psychologyhas labelled the sociological influence, then we can takethe view that an interactionist approach is appropriate.eOn the other hand, if we assume that gender isconstructed in the social context in which it occurs, wecan see how a female may have been persuaded to sidewith the opposite gender.

Isbe

hav

iourw

hen

gam

ingonlineem

be

dded

inreallife?

Or

does

play

happen

inside

the

magiccircle

whe

re

differentru

les

apply?

The magic circle isa theory that has

been challenged. Ithas been suggested

that it should betreated as a

boundarywherebehaviour is

negotiatedwithother participants.

Social Network AnalysisOnline networks can bemodelled using graph theory.Individuals become nodes,the connections between themedges.Nodes may be clustered ingroups because they haveattributes in common, forexample in a scale freenetwork.Attributes are not aboutgender, class, plysical locationsin the real world or similarclassifications. Attributes

within a social network areabout shared interests,influences, choices orfeedback from other nodes inthe same position in the

Sarah HewittUniversity of Southampton, 2014 @s2hewitt sarahhewittsblog.wordpress.com

The Psychologyof Play

@GlinnerFrankly, notone of my guildmatesor other players inWoW knows Imfemale and Im keep-ing it that way.