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Gender Bias and the Evaluation of Players: Voice and Gender in Narrated Gameplay Videos

This study evaluates perception differences of male and female narrators in video game tutorials. Video games have long been considered a masculine pursuit, and because of this, women have endured unpleasant surroundings and interactions in gaming and related communities. With the proliferation of technologies like Twitch and YouTube gaming, gaming is more communicative than ever, increasing potential for problematic interactions. Recent booms in these technologies emphasize the importance of understanding how varying demographics are perceived, as these perceptions influence interactions, potentially limiting the likelihood of women and others' involvement and interest.
Involvement in technology during youth is associated with interests in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers--all fields with disparities in women's employment. Measures included confidence, credibility, performance, trustworthiness, and leadership ability to better understand how the integration of communicative technologies into gaming influences perceptions based on cues--in this case, specifically voice. Male narrators were hypothesized to be evaluated as more confident and credible than female narrators overall, while performance, trustworthiness, and leadership evaluations were hypothesized to be moderated by one's own gender identity. No significant differences emerged, which suggests a positive change in climate for female gamers and leaders in the industry.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:pdx.edu/oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:open_access_etds-4167
Date29 August 2016
CreatorsCrowell, Robin April
PublisherPDXScholar
Source SetsPortland State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceDissertations and Theses

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