Playing under threat. Examining stereotype threat in female game players

Applying the multi-threat framework of stereotype threat in the context of digital gaming

“…In respect of the psychological outcomes of self-efficacy and competence beliefs, it is probable that participants were not able to make accurate assessments of these, with no source of comparison on which to base their personal gaming performance appraisal. Future research could therefore explore the influence of explicit performance feedback or relative comparisons (leader-boards) as a means to evoke stereotype threat [ 21 ]. This would welcome bespoke game development, in which feedback mechanisms are able to be manipulated and built-in to games to permit an exploration of how stereotype threat may influence gameplay performance and psychosocial attitudes within gaming contexts.…”

“…Although some initial evidence has started to emerge in this regard [ 20 , 21 ] there is still scant understanding of the impact that negative societal stereotypes may have on females’ gaming performance and associated attitudes. Specifically, there is some evidence that females underperform at gaming tasks under stereotype threat [ 21 ], although other findings are less clear-cut on this issue, and instead suggest that female players’ gamer identity is more prudent as a factor when exploring performance detriments associated with stereotype threat [ 20 ]. Nevertheless, no research to date has explored how variations in the form of stereotype threat (i.e., self-relevant or group-relevant) may impact upon females’ gaming performance.…”

“…Moreover, we expected that they would also underperform when primed with self-as-target stereotype threat due to concerns that they would confirm the negative societal stereotype as a true representation of their own ability [ 9 ]. We explored further whether gender identity moderated the stereotype threat-performance relationship, based on prior research suggesting that those who are highly gender identified may be more susceptible to group-as-target stereotype threat [ 21 , 23 ]. Extending this, Experiment 2 manipulated the ‘source’ of the stereotype by priming females to believe that other in-group (i.e., females) or out-group members (males) would judge their performance.…”

Do casual gaming environments evoke stereotype threat? Examining the effects of explicit priming and avatar gender

“…In turn, this may have reduced participants' ability to make performance appraisals of their ability. In previous research, the use of leaderboards in gaming tasks that enable relative-level performance appraisals have been found to successfully induce stereotype threat effects (Vermeulen, Castellar, Janssen, Calvi, & Van Looy, 2016). Given that performance appraisals, expectancies and goals have been found to be relevant in stereotype threat research (Brodish & Devine, 2009;Cadinu, Maas, Frigerio, Impagliazzo & Latinotti, 2003;Rosenthal, Crisp & Suen, 2007;Sekaquaptewa & Thompson, 2003), the nature of the performance metrics in the current study may have prevented participants' capacity to judge what was "poor" performance, and thus did not operate as a continued threat upon task performance.…”

“…Indeed, recent research has begun to explore the impact that negative gender-gaming stereotypes exert on females' gameplay performance and related self-perceptions (c.f., Kaye & Pennington, 2016), and has examined further whether the saliency of such stereotypes can be evoked within the gaming environment itself (e.g., leaderboards; Vermeulen, Castellar, Janssen, Calvi, & Van Looy, 2016). However, such research is very much in its infancy and additional work is needed to explore the influence of gender-related stereotypes in distinct sub-domains of gaming.…”