A joint study conducted by the University of Michigan, Central Michigan University, and Ohio State University, together with Netherlands institute 4VU University, has found that white participants who played as a violent black character in a video game displayed “stronger implicit and explicit negative attitudes toward blacks than did participants who played a violent video game as a white avatar”.
Researchers from the four universities conducted part of the study with 126 white gamers, presenting them with two “violent” video games in which one protagonist was black and the other was white.
The players who used the black character showed “negative attitudes” towards blacks, more so than those who played as a white character.
In a separate experiment, 141 gamers who played a different violent video game as a black (and then a white) character “displayed stronger implicit attitudes linking blacks to weapons. Implicit attitudes, in turn, related to subsequent aggression”.
The study can be access via the Social Psychology and Personality Science.
What do you think? Are games perpetuating racial stereotypes, or does this study hold no water? Let us know in the comments and forum.
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Sorry, but I never understood the purpose, rationale or outcome of racial based studies in gaming. First of all, it proves nothing, as any number of factors could influence the end result, like education levels, socio-economic level, environment, emotional maturity, etc. Next off, what are you trying to prove – that one group of people is somehow connected to your subject matter simply because of ethnic background – and not to the lack of support structures, the deterioration of the family unit, depression, etc.? And finally, how can you say violence is connected to games, when 0.000000001% of them actually commits criminal acts – never mind the fact that family or friends usually takes them on practice sessions, they somehow get access to real life weapons (not virtual ones) and simply walk past several people who never notice they are carrying weapons, into buildings that should have metal detectors and security guards, but don’t? On top of that, racism in gaming is simply the reflection of a societal problem, much like cars cannot be blamed for drunk drivers.