Detecting the Content of Gender Stereotypes in Videogame Characters

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the content and nature of gender stereotypes embedded in traditional attributes portrayed by videogame characters. It presents a review of the main concepts that take part in this phenomenon. The findings were then put to test with two small-scale exploratory studies that corroborated the data. The most common depiction of female characters is as damsels in distress, and sexual objects, while the most common depiction of male characters is as heroes or aggressors. Finally, it proposes that the combined used of the data gathered and the dimensions of the Stereotype Content Model would be able to detect gender stereotypical traits in videogame characters.