A new analysis based on large-scale national survey data shows that there is no positive correlation between playing video games and xenophobic or prejudiced attitudes. On the contrary, gamers tend to be more tolerant and progressive than the average American in terms of gender role concepts, social tolerance and equality values.Relevant research was published in the academic journal Psychology of Popular Media, providing an important correction to the long-standing public impression that "game culture nourishes sexism and racism." Researchers pointed out that the hostile words and deeds that attract attention on social media are more likely to come from a small number of voices in a specific community rather than a reflection of the overall values of the gaming population.
Video games have long been criticized for their portrayal of women and ethnic minorities. The Gamergate incident around 2014 brought online harassment and attacks on feminist critics to the forefront. In recent years, the controversy surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the game industry has continued to ferment. Some players have mobilized online to boycott works that contain diverse character settings or progressive narratives, and even launched public opinion offensives against studios that hire consultants to write more inclusive plots. For example, the consulting company Sweet Baby Inc. became the target of a social media offensive by players in late 2023. Some players used the functions of the digital distribution platform to "mark" the works they participated in to remind others that these games were considered "overly progressive" or "diversity-oriented" by them. In this kind of public opinion environment, the video game space is often directly tied to exclusive values such as "traditional gender roles" and "opposition to equal rights" by the outside world.
Some believe that due to the frequent presence of violent content in games and the reinforcement of traditional masculinity, games themselves will "cultivate" xenophobic attitudes. This concern is supported to a certain extent by "cultivation theory" - that is, long-term exposure to specific media content will shape an individual's perception of the real world. Another type of theory treats players more as "blank slates" and believes that they will passively absorb the attitudes and values presented in the media. In contrast, the "reinforcement spiral model" proposes that media use is both a result and a cause: people tend to choose media content that is consistent with existing values, and this content further reinforces original beliefs. Under this framework, games will not unidirectionally spread exclusive ideas to a group of "passive players". Players' original values will act like a filter and affect how they understand the game and its community culture.
The research was conducted by Sean Pauley, a doctoral student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and colleagues Wil Dubree and Brule E. Woods. Pauley said the research team was first inspired by a paper they read in class, which argued that games can cultivate xenophobic values. Pauley has participated in a large-scale market research data project, which contains information about the worldview, gaming behavior and other information of respondents. The sample is far larger than the undergraduate group commonly seen in general psychological research, providing an opportunity to further test this hypothesis. The team suspects that the hostility highlighted in public opinion may just be the result of the amplification of a small number of radical groups in the gaming community.
The study used U.S. national consumer survey data provided by market research organization MRI-Simmons, and selected three rounds of surveys in 2012, 2016 and 2020. These years roughly cover the cultural atmosphere before, during, and after the Gamergate outbreak, and are helpful for observing changes in overall values before and after related controversies. The survey used an address-based probability sampling method and intentionally oversampled the 13 largest media markets in the United States, resulting in a final sample size of 77,018 people. This sampling design was designed to ensure that the data were nationally representative and provide a solid basis for analyzing the relationship between gaming behavior and cultural values.
In terms of value measurement, the study focused on three dimensions: traditional gender roles, social tolerance and equality concepts. Respondents were asked to rate the importance of the relevant value on a three-point scale ranging from "not important" to "very important." Traditional gender roles are defined as the traditional expectations of "what roles men and women should play." Social tolerance refers to respect for differences among different races, religions, and ethnic groups. Equality emphasizes that "all people should enjoy equal opportunities." On this basis, the researchers then conducted statistical modeling on the respondents’ gaming behavior and three values.
Regarding gaming behavior, the researchers examined whether respondents had played online or offline video games in the past 12 months, and whether they had played shooting games or used the Xbox Live online service in the past 30 days. These indicators cover both the broader "average gamer" and the segmented groups that are perceived as "problematic" by the outside world, such as first-person shooter game players and Xbox Live users who are often questioned as a "toxic environment" in voice chat. Subsequently, the research team used proportional odds logistic regression to build a statistical model to test the association between different types of gaming behaviors and the above-mentioned values while controlling multiple demographic variables.
The control variables included in the model include age, income, education level, gender and survey year to eliminate the interference of demographic differences on the results as much as possible. Under such a setting, analysis is more helpful in highlighting the relationship between "whether to play games" and "what kind of games to play" itself and cultural value tendencies, rather than simply reflecting the general attitudes of a certain generation or a certain social class. By modeling ranked categorical outcome variables, researchers were able to assess differences in the probability that different gaming behaviors were associated with individuals being more conservative or tolerant on the values scale.
The results show that compared with people who do not play games, both online and offline gamers are less supportive of traditional gender role concepts and value social tolerance and equal opportunities more. In other words, the general "player base" as a whole has slightly more inclusive and progressive values. Regarding shooting games, which are widely concerned by the outside world, the data also does not show obvious xenophobic tendencies. Even in terms of gender roles and equality concepts, shooter players are closer to an inclusive stance. Their attitudes toward social tolerance were not significantly different from those of the overall U.S. sample.
Among Xbox Live users, a group often criticized as a "toxic community," research also found trends that go against the stereotype. Respondents who use Xbox Live show a more inclusive value orientation than the overall sample in terms of gender roles and social tolerance. However, they did not differ significantly from the overall sample in terms of the importance of equality perceptions. Combining all analyses, the research team found no evidence of a positive association between game playing and a significant increase in exclusionary value in any model.
In an interview with PsyPost, Pauley emphasized that the public should avoid viewing gamers as a "single, homogeneous" group. While xenophobic and hostile voices do exist in some online gaming communities, and previous research has documented hostility toward female and minority gamers, these phenomena do not adequately represent the mainstream values of the entire player community. The findings show that, on average, gamers are slightly more inclusive than the general public, countering the assumption that most gamers hold xenophobic views. A more reasonable explanation, the authors suggest, is that hostility is driven primarily by a small, vocal, active group of players rather than by the vast majority of players as a whole.
At the same time, the research does not deny that racism, sexism, and other forms of exclusion do exist in gaming spaces. Pauley again cautions that readers should not conclude from this study that gaming communities are completely safe and welcoming. Some specific online communities are likely to strengthen xenophobic behaviors internally and provide amplifiers for extreme voices, even if the "majority of players" themselves tend to have inclusive values. Therefore, how to understand the formation and operating mechanisms of these local communities remains an important issue for future research.
The authors also admit that this study has several limitations. First of all, the survey data did not continuously track the same group of individuals from 2012 to 2020, so it is impossible to directly test the interaction process between beliefs and media use over time in the "reinforcement spiral model". Secondly, the classification of game types is relatively broad. For example, the "shooting game" category may cover works with huge differences in content and social atmosphere. Future research that can conduct detailed analysis of specific game titles and their surrounding communities will be more helpful in explaining why some game environments are more likely to evolve into "toxic communities" while others are relatively benign.
The research team suggests that follow-up work can further explore the specific social mechanisms through which hostile voices dominate the discourse space in online communities, including how platform design, community governance, and content review policies affect player behavior. In addition, distinguishing between the two types of player identities: "playing games as a pastime" and "strongly identifying with a certain gaming subculture" may also provide key clues for understanding the values of different communities.