A recent analysis of survey data suggests that playing video games does not correspond to an increase in exclusionary or prejudiced beliefs among players. In a paper published in a magazine Psychology of popular mediaScientists report that video game players tend to hold more inclusive cultural values than the general American public. These findings provide evidence that hostile online environments may be driven by specific community dynamics rather than broader attitudes among gamers.
The culture surrounding video games is frequently criticized for the way women and minority groups are represented. Over the past decade, a series of controversies have drawn attention to hostilities within these digital spaces. The most notable example is Gamergate, an online campaign that began in 2014. The movement primarily involved harassment of feminist media critics and expressed opposition to progressive social change.
More recently, a similar backlash has targeted efforts focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion within the gaming industry. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs aim to promote the fair treatment and full participation of historically marginalized groups. In the gaming world, those who oppose these efforts often rally online to protest the inclusion of diverse characters and progressive narratives. They may also use social media to organize boycotts of game development studios that hire consultants to help create more inclusive stories.
One notable example involves a consulting studio called Sweet Baby Inc., which became the target of a player-driven social media campaign in late 2023. These players used digital storefront features to alert others about games they perceived as being of progressive or diverse quality. These highly publicized controversies often link the video game space to exclusionary values. By exclusionary values, scientists mean beliefs that support traditional gender roles or oppose social tolerance and equal opportunity.
Because games often depict violence and reinforce male gender roles, some views suggest that simply playing games can cause individuals to develop these less inclusive attitudes. This idea is partly rooted in cultivation theory, a concept that suggests that long-term exposure to particular media content shapes the way people perceive the world. Other academic perspectives assume that players act as blank canvases and simply absorb the attitudes displayed in the media they consume.
Some researchers suspect that another process is at work, pointing to a framework called the reinforcement spiral model. This model proposes that media use is both a cause and an effect of one’s beliefs. People tend to choose media that aligns with their existing values, and that media reinforces those exact values. According to this perspective, video games may not uniformly instill exclusive ideas in passive players.
Instead, players’ pre-existing values act as a filter for how they interpret the games they play and the digital communities they participate in. “My colleagues and I decided to explore this topic after reading a paper in a class we taught that made the argument that games foster exclusionary values,” said Sean Polley, a doctoral student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Polley co-authored the study with Will Dabree and Brule E. Woods, who are also doctoral students in the program.
Based on contrasting theories, the authors wanted to test whether exclusive values are indeed widespread among the broader gaming population. “Coincidentally, I decided to dig deeper into this project because I was working with a large market research dataset that included items such as worldview and gaming behavior that may exceed the undergraduate sample used in the study in question,” Pauly explained. They suspected that public debate was amplifying the voices of hostile minorities.
To answer their research questions, scientists analyzed data from a large market research organization called MRI-Simmons. They looked at national consumer surveys conducted in the United States over three specific years: 2012, 2016, and 2020. These years were chosen because they capture the cultural climate before, during, and after the peak of the Gamergate movement.
The data came from a probabilistic address-based sample, meaning that respondents were randomly selected based on their home address to ensure statistical representation. This study intentionally overestimated the 13 largest media markets in the United States. The study included responses from a total of 77,018 people.
The survey measured three specific cultural values using a three-point scale and asked respondents to rate the importance of each concept. The choices ranged from not important to very important. The first measure asked about the importance of men and women following traditional gender roles.
The second scale asked about the importance of social tolerance, defined as respecting ethnic, religious, and racial differences. The third scale asked about the importance of equality, defined as the desire for equal opportunities for all people. To understand gaming habits, researchers looked at self-reported behavior.
They tracked whether respondents had played online or offline video games in the past 12 months. We also tracked whether respondents had played a shooter game or used the Xbox Live online gaming service in the past 30 days. The scientists then built a statistical model to examine how these gaming behaviors correlated with three cultural values.
When building the model, the authors included several control variables to ensure the results were accurate. These took into account the respondent’s age, income level, education level, gender, and the year in which the survey was conducted. By controlling for these factors, the researchers were able to isolate the specific relationship between gaming habits and cultural values. They analyzed the data using a method called proportional odds logistic regression. This is a statistical method that measures relationships between variables when ranking results into categories.
Researchers found that individuals who play online and offline video games are actually more likely to hold inclusive values compared to the general population. Across all three value categories, casual gamers expressed significantly less support for traditional gender roles. They also significantly increased support for social tolerance and equality.
The scientists then looked specifically at players of shooter games, a genre often associated with military themes and violence. They also found that shooter game players were more likely to hold inclusive values regarding gender roles and equality compared to the general population. Their views on social tolerance were not significantly different from the average American.
A similar pattern emerged when researchers analyzed users of Xbox Live, a platform that has historically been criticized for hosting toxic community interactions. Xbox Live users were significantly more likely to hold inclusive values regarding gender roles and social tolerance than the general population. Their views on equality were not significantly different from the sample average.
Across all models tested, the authors found no evidence that video game play broadly corresponds to increases in exclusivity value. “The public should understand from our findings that video game players are not a monolithic community,” Pauley told PsyPost. “While there are certainly exclusive and vocal segments of the online gaming community, and we do not mean to discount that, our findings suggest that video game players, on average, have slightly more inclusive values than the general population.”
Although this paper provides evidence that games are not inherently bias-promoting, there are some potential misconceptions to consider. This finding does not mean that racism and sexism do not exist in the gaming community. “Again, we don’t want readers to come away from this study believing that hostile and exclusionary spaces don’t exist within the gaming community,” Polley said.
“Parts of the gaming community have historically been hostile to women and racial minorities, and previous research has shown that,” Pauly told PsyPost. “But we also want to correct those who believe that the majority of video game players have exclusive values. Our research shows that this is not the case.” The authors suggest that hostility may be driven by a vocal minority of players rather than the general gaming population.
It’s also possible that certain online communities reinforce exclusionary practices, even if the average gamer holds progressive views. This study also has some limitations regarding its design. The survey data did not follow the exact same individuals over eight years. Unable to follow the same respondents over long periods of time, the scientists were unable to fully test the reinforcement spiral model to see how beliefs and media habits influence each other sequentially.
Another limitation relates to the way the study categorizes different types of games. A broad category, such as shooter games, can include a wide variety of content and community dynamics. Future research may benefit from investigating specific game titles rather than broader genres. Examining the unique cultures that form around individual games may help explain why some communities become toxic while others remain welcoming.
Additional research could also investigate the specific social mechanisms that allow hostile voices to dominate certain gaming platforms. Understanding how community moderation and platform design impact player behavior will provide more context. Exploring the difference between simply playing games and strongly identifying with a particular gaming subculture may also provide useful insights.
The study, “Preparing for DEI: Addressing Gamergate through Political Opinions and Cultural Values in Gaming Communities,” was authored by Sean Pauley, Wil Dubree, and Brule E. Woods.
