Bigger Isn’t Always Better: An Assessment of the Use of Hypersexualized Video Game Character Models and Player Preference in Video Games

Abstract

From television and movies to music videos and magazines, the media we consume has a significant impact on our attitudes, behaviors, social norms, and gender stereotypes. The sexualization of women in the media has been shown to lead to negative health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, body image issues, and eating disorders. While the impact of media such as television, movies, magazines, and social media sites have been explored previously, we have less of an understanding as to how video games as a media may affect players. This study evaluates the impact of hypersexualized character models on player preference for purchasing and playing a video game as well as the sociocultural attitudes towards appearance of the player. When given the choice between hypersexualized and normal proportioned character models, participants significantly preferred the normal character models. Furthermore, when given the choice between a male and female character model used on video game promotional art, the majority of participants preferred the female character model. No significance was found among participants’ sociocultural attitudes towards appearance. These findings illustrate the need for increased realistic female representation in video games.