AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR

Volume 42, pages 513–521 (2016)

Men’s Harassment Behavior in Online Video Games:

Personality Traits and Game Factors
Wai Yen Tang and Jesse Fox*

The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

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Online video games afford co-play and social interaction, often anonymous, among players from around the world. As predicted by
the social identity model of deindividuation effects, undesirable behavior is not uncommon in online gaming environments, and
online harassment has become a pervasive issue in the gaming community. In this study, we sought to determine what personality
traits and game-related variables predicted two types of online aggression in video games: general harassment (e.g., skill-based
taunting, insulting others’ intelligence) and sexual harassment (e.g., sexist comments, rape threats). Men who play online video
games (N ¼ 425) participated in an anonymous online survey. Social dominance orientation and hostile sexism predicted higher
levels of both sexual harassment and general harassment in online games. Game involvement and hours of weekly gameplay were
additional predictors of general harassment. We discuss implications of online social aggression and online sexual harassment
for online gaming. We also apply our findings to the broader understanding of online harassment, cyberaggression,
cyberbullying, and other forms of online hostility in computer-mediated communication contexts. Aggr. Behav. 42:513–521,
2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Keywords: online harassment; sexual harassment; video games; hostile sexism; cyberaggression

INTRODUCTION in press; Gray, 2012a,b; Kuznekoff & Rose, 2013; Pew

Recent years have seen video games emerge as one of
the most popular forms of media entertainment, in part
because online gaming has made it into an increasingly
social activity. Over 60% of gamers play with others,
either in person or online (Entertainment Software
Association, 2014). Moreover, gaming is drawing an
increasingly diverse audience in terms of age and
gender. Recent surveys indicate that women comprise
approximately half of video game players (Chalk, 2014;
ESA, 2014). Despite women’s growing participation in
games, perceptions about gaming as a men’s activity and
a masculine space persist (Shaw, 2012).
These stereotypes and expectations have implications
for how people interact within gaming spaces as they
determine who “belongs” in games and who does not.
Further, the perceived affordances or features of many
online gaming spaces, such as anonymity and limited
nonverbal cues, may exacerbate these boundaries.
According to the social identity model of deindividua-
tion effects (Lea & Spears, 1991), these salient social
identities, compounded by anonymity, facilitate conflict,
harassment, and other forms of negative social interac-
tion online.
Considerable research has established that online games
can be a hostile environment for players (Ballard & Welch,
Research Center, 2014; Taylor, 2006; Yee, 2014). Some of
this hostility is an artifact of competitive game play, in
which trash talking one’s opponents is a common practice
(Wright, Boria, & Breidenbach, 2002). Even in collabora-
tive play, players may be hassled for making mistakes or
not contributing to the team’s efforts. Commonly, though,
players are targeted for harassment simply because they are
perceived as “not belonging” (Yee, 2014). Women in
particular are perceived as outsiders and become targeted
for harassment in online video games and other gaming
realms (Behm-Morawitz & Schipper, in press; Chess &
Shaw, 2015; Cote, in press; Fox & Tang, 2014; Gray,
2012b; Salter & Blodgett, 2012; Taylor, 2006; Yee, 2014).
Given the limited quantitative research in this area,
this study seeks to address this gap by investigating the
Conflicts of interest: None.

Correspondence to: Jesse Fox, School of Communication, The Ohio
State University, 3016 Derby Hall, 154 North Oval Mall, Columbus, OH
43210-1339. E-mail: fox.775@osu.edu
Received 15 October 2015; Revised 3 January 2016; Accepted 7 January
2016
DOI: 10.1002/ab.21646
Published online 16 February 2016 in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com).

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


514 Tang and Fox
prevalence and predictors of sexual harassment as well
as other forms of harassment in online video games.
Because online harassment causes significant distress in
targets (Fenaughty & Harr
e, 2013; Pew Research
Center, 2014) and can lead to offline rumination and
even quitting a game entirely (Fox & Tang, in press), it is
important to investigate the predictors and incidence of
harassment behavior in games. At this time, however,
research on harassment in gaming has been studied as a
distinctly online phenomenon and has largely over-
looked the considerable body of existing research on
sexual harassment in organizational contexts. These
studies have identified key traits, such as sexism and
social dominance orientation (Diehl, Rees, & Bohner,
2012; Pryor, Giedd, & Williams, 1995; Russell & Trigg,
2004), that predict the likelihood of harassing others.
This study seeks to address this rift by synthesizing
existing work on sexual harassment in nonmediated
environments (Pina & Gannon, 2012; Pryor et al., 1995;
Russell & Trigg, 2004) with previous findings on sexist
gaming beliefs (Fox & Tang, 2014). Specifically, we
examined the roles of ambivalent sexism and social
dominance orientation alongside gameplay and game
involvement to identify predictors of men’s harassment
behavior in online games.
Online Video Games
Social gaming is important to consider given that the
presence of other people—or even the perceived
presence of others—can affect performance, physiolog-
ical reactions, and enjoyment (Bowman, Weber,
Tamborini, & Sherry, 2013; Weibel, Wissmath, Habeg-
ger, Steiner, & Groner, 2008). Most popular online video
games focus on competition wherein individual gamers
face other, opposing players, or they collaborate with
other players to face a common opponent. These online
multiplayer games are often dominated by men (Quandt,
Chen, M€ayr€a, & Van Looy, 2014; Ratan, Taylor, Hogan,
Kennedy, & Williams, 2015).
The violent content and competitive nature of online
video games may also facilitate hostility between
gamers. Several meta-analyses framed from the general
aggression model have found that violent video game
content can lead to increased aggression in some players
(Anderson & Bushman, 2001; Anderson et al., 2010;
Greitemeyer & M€ugge, 2014). Furthermore, longitudi-
nal studies on the exposure to violent video games have
revealed long-term effects, such as higher physical
aggression and less prosocial behavior among children
(Gentile, Coyne, & Walsh, 2011) and an increase in
normative beliefs about aggression and subsequent
physical aggression among adolescents (M€oller &
Krah
e, 2009). Beyond violent content, players’ experi-
ences in games have also been shown to influence
Aggr. Behav.
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aggression. Adachi and Willoughby (2011) found that
competitiveness of a video game contributes to greater
levels of aggression, and recent research by Przybylski,
Deci, Rigby, and Ryan (2014) suggests that frustration
and diminished competence within the game leads to
aggression.
Given that popular networked video games often focus
on competition, feature violent content, and are designed
to keep players engaged through challenging (and often
frustrating) play, these environments may be prone to
fostering hostility which may translate into negative
social interaction. Other features of the gaming
environment, such as the lack of co-location and player
anonymity, may also promote harassment in online
games.
Social Identity Model of Deindividuation
Effects
In some online spaces, users perceive few, if any,
social cues. Feeling that they are effectively anonymous,
users experience deindividuation, or a loss of a sense of
self. The social identity model of deindividuation effects
(SIDE) posits that under these conditions, users defer to
salient group memberships (Lea & Spears, 1991). For
example, when gender cues are made salient, anony-
mous users interact in more gender-stereotypical ways
than nonanonymous users (Postmes & Spears, 2002).
Further, perceptions of other anonymous users’ identi-
ties are reduced to salient group memberships that are
depersonalized and stereotyped (Postmes, Spears, &
Lea, 1998). This confluence of factors leads to
disinhibition in online environment, which facilitates
antisocial behavior such as flaming, trolling, cyberbully-
ing, and other forms of online harassment (Fox & Tang,
2014; Suler, 2004; Wright, 2014).
Video games have traditionally been perceived as a
masculine space: developers and industry members are
overwhelmingly men, representations in games are
predominantly men, and games often feature tradition-
ally masculine tasks rooted in competition and aggres-
sion (Gray, 2012a; Salter & Blodgett, 2012). This
perception carries over to players as well; the prevalent
stereotype for a “gamer” is a defensive heterosexual
White male (Gray, 2012a; Salter & Blodgett, 2012;
Shaw, 2012). SIDE would predict that in largely
anonymous online gaming spaces, players would neglect
their individual identities in deference to this prevalent
social identity for gamers. This defensive, masculine
social identity encourages hostile and aggressive
behavior toward others, particularly outsiders.
Indeed, networked video games can be hostile spaces
characterized by trash talking, objectionable language,
and offensive comments. Women and other minorities
are often specifically targeted for this harassment

(Behm-Morawitz & Schipper, in press; Cote, in press;
Salter & Blodgett, 2012; Yee, 2014). Recent research
has parsed apart the scope and nature of this harassment.
Kuznekoff and Rose (2013) played a networked violent
video game with other anonymous players and inter-
acted with them using prerecorded voices. The woman’s
voice received three times the amount of negative
comments than the man’s voice had received. Holz
Ivory, Fox, Waddell, and Ivory (2014) followed a similar
protocol with prerecorded voices and also manipulated
whether the comments were supportive or insulting.
After the match, they friend-requested other players.
They found that when the voice demonstrated gender-
stereotypical behavior (i.e., women were supportive and
men were hostile), significantly more players accepted
friend requests than when the voices were counter-
stereotypical. Gray’s research (2012a,b) shows that
players who allow gender, race, or ethnicity-related cues
to leak in networked game play are subsequently
targeted for harassment. Similarly, Ballard and Welch
(in press) noted that women and lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender (LGBT) players were disproportion-
ately targeted. Two surveys have also found that men are
more likely to be perpetrators of harassment in video
games than women (Ballard & Welch, in press; Fox &
Tang, 2013).
Thus, the body of existing research demonstrates that
harassment is common in online gaming spaces. Men are
most likely to be perpetrators, and those perceived to
be minorities are often targeted as they do not fit within the
dominant social identity. Given that gender can often be
determined even with the limited personal cues available in
networked games, women in particular seem to be targeted
(Ballard & Welch, in press; Fox & Tang, 2013; Kuznekoff
& Rose, 2013); as such, research on sexism and gendered
harassment may provide further insight.
Sex Roles, Sexism, and Sexual Harassment
Research on sexual harassment originated from
studies on victimization of women in the workplace
(Farley, 1978). Sexual harassment is defined as unwel-
come sexual advances or other conduct that targets
someone based on their sex or gender, which may range
from making suggestive or discriminatory comments to
coercing someone to perform sexual acts (Pina &
Gannon, 2012). Most often, sexual harassment is
perpetrated by men and targeting women (Pina, Gannon,
& Saunders, 2009; Pryor, 1987). Online sexual harass-
ment is similar to its offline equivalent (Barak, 2005),
but the perpetrator’s and victim’s identities are often
anonymous. This circumstance enables individuals with
sexual harassment proclivities to identify such oppor-
tunities and act upon them with little or no consequences
(Ritter, 2014). In an aggressive, largely anonymous
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Harassment in Video Games 515
online social environment such as networked video
games where men as perceived as the majority, these
findings suggest that women are likely to be targeted for
sexual harassment.
One predictor of sexual harassment is sexism (Glick &
Fiske, 1996; Pryor et al., 1995). The theory of ambivalent
sexism posits that individuals may hold hostile, benevo-
lent, or both types of attitudes towards women; both
hostile and benevolent sexism have derogatory implica-
tions for women’s nature and abilities (Glick & Fiske,
1996). Hostile sexism is defined by antipathy towards
women and a sense of superiority over women. This type
of sexism characterizes women as manipulative and
trying to dominate men because of women’s inherent
inferiority. Benevolent sexism entails a paternalistic
attitude towards women and rigid views of gender roles
(Glick & Fiske, 1996). In this case, women are seen as
weak, precious, and incapable of accomplishing the same
things as men, and as such should be disempowered and
protected by men. Although research examining sexism
and gaming is rare, one study identified a positive
relationship between video game use and hostile sexism
(Fox & Potocki, in press).
Both forms of sexism have deleterious outcomes.
Prior studies found that men high in hostile sexism were
more accepting of sexual harassment, more likely to
blame the victim rather than the perpetrator, more likely
to see harassment as harmless, and more inclined to
sexually harass women than men low in hostile sexism
(Begany & Milburn, 2002; Diehl et al., 2012). Russell
and Trigg (2004) found that hostile sexism predicted
tolerance of sexual harassment, whereas benevolent
sexism was negatively associated with it. Based on these
findings, we expect that:
H1: Higher levels of benevolent sexism will be
associated with less harassment behavior in online
video games.
H2: Higher levels of hostile sexism will be associated
with more harassment behavior in online video
games.
Other Predictors of Harassment
Social dominance orientation. Social domi-
nance orientation (SDO) reflects individuals’ endorse-
ment of inequality among social groups, resulting in
prejudice and the belief in one group’s superiority over
other groups (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999). SDO is a
predictor of intergroup prejudice against ethnic minori-
ties and other denigrated groups, including women.
Individuals high in SDO feel threatened if they perceive
that members of a disadvantaged group are competing
Aggr. Behav.

516 Tang and Fox
with them, and thus may take action to assert and
maintain their dominance (Cozzolino & Snyder, 2008;
Duckitt, 2006). For example, men high in SDO are more
likely to harass women when the legitimacy of their
dominance is questioned (Maass, Cadinu, Guarnieri, &
Grasselli, 2003). For men, SDO may be exacerbated in a
competitive social environment such as gaming given
the potential for one’s masculine social identity to be
threatened. Similarly, anyone perceived as an outsider
(based on demographic characteristics, skill level, or
other behavior) may threaten the legitimacy of their
gaming space as an exclusive group.
Theoretically, social dominance orientation is of
particular interest within the SIDE model. SIDE
suggests that the salience of social identity, made
possible via anonymity, drives the process of dein-
dividuation. Higher levels of SDO suggest not only an
adherence toward one’s social identity, but also a greater
social distance from other groups. Thus, it seems that
higher levels of SDO may increase the likelihood of
negative social behavior fostered by the process of
deindividuation in online environments.
H3: Higher levels of social dominance orientation
will be associated with more harassment behavior
in online video games.
Video game involvement and time spent
playing video games. Video game involvement is
another factor in how players are informed in their
interactions with other players. Social identity theory, the
framework for the SIDE model, suggests that higher
levels of involvement with one’s group leads to a greater
desire to identify oneself as a group member and
distinguish one’s group from other groups (Tajfel &
Turner, 1979). Further, highly involved individuals are
more likely to engage in conflict to protect or defend their
group from outgroup threats (Tajfel & Turner, 1979).
In gaming, many players are highly involved and
engaged with specific games as well as groups within the
gaming community. Involvement with games has been
shown to be a distinct predictor of player characteristics
and behavior (e.g., Billieux et al., 2015; Peters &
Malesky, 2008). Further, those who are highly involved
with games have been shown to attack or discredit those
who they perceive as a threat, such as scientists reporting
harmful effects of games (Nauroth, Gollwitzer, Bender,
& Rothmund, 2015). Thus, we anticipate that men who
are highly involved in games may be more likely to
harass others, perhaps out of a desire to protect or defend
what they perceive as their space.
Involvement also entails socializing oneself into the
game’s social norms, and spending time in the game
Aggr. Behav.
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would lead to more exposure to harassment, so if players
are frequently playing online games, they may normalize
or begin perpetuating harassing behavior. Indeed, Ross
and Weaver (2012) found that participants who
encountered antisocial interactions in a game were
more likely to interact antisocially and to anticipate
more antisocial interaction in the future. Thus, we
anticipate that:
H4: Higher levels of game involvement will be
associated with harassment behavior in online
video games.
H5: More time spent playing video games will be
associated with harassment behavior in online
video games.
METHOD
Sample
IRB approval was obtained for the study from the
authors’ institution. Adult participants were recruited
through posts on video game-related online forums,
blogs, and social media. Both authors also promoted the
survey from their personal social media accounts and
asked others to share the link. No compensation was
offered for participation. When participants followed the
link, they were taken to an online consent form. If
participants consented to participate, they were redir-
ected to the online survey.
All participants identified as men (N ¼ 425) and
represented 47 countries. The most common was the U.S.
(representing 46.4% of the sample) followed by the
United Kingdom (9.6%), Canada (5.4%), Germany
(4%), and Sweden (3.8%). Participants ranged in age
from 18 to 55 (M ¼ 23.40, SD ¼ 5.64) and reported their
race/ethnicity as Caucasian/European/White (83.8%),
Asian/Asian–American (5.2%), Latino/a (1.6%), Afri-
can/African–American/Black (0.5%), other (1%), and
multiple races/ethnicities (8%).
Participants played an average of 24.88 hr (SD ¼ 15.99)
of video games a week. For this study, they were asked to
complete the survey based on their experiences in one
game. The most frequently cited games were Defense of
the Ancients (DOTA) 2 (n ¼ 157), Team Fortress 2
(n ¼ 43), League of Legends (n ¼ 25), World of
Warcraft (n ¼ 13), and various iterations of Counter-
Strike (n ¼ 55), Call of Duty (n ¼ 33), and Halo (n ¼ 14).
Measures
Social dominance orientation (SDO). Sida-
nius and Pratto’s (1999) 16-item measure assessed the
belief that some groups of people are superior and
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Harassment in Video Games 517

entitled to more power in society. Participants indicated RESULTS

agreement on a 7-point Likert scale (1 ¼ Strongly
Correlations for all composite variables can be seen in
disagree; 7 ¼ Strongly agree) with statements such as
Table I. Ordinary least squares regressions were
“Some groups of people are simply inferior to other
conducted to examine the hypotheses. All variance
groups” and “Sometimes other groups must be kept in
inflation factor values were below 2, indicating the
their place” (M ¼ 2.63, SD ¼ 1.08; a ¼ .91).
absence of multicollinearity.
Ambivalent sexism. The Ambivalent Sexism
The proposed model predicted sexual harassment,
Inventory (ASI; Glick & Fiske, 1996) consists of two
R ¼ .43, adjusted R2 ¼ .17, F(5, 417) ¼ 18.60, p < .001.
11-item subscales that measure two aspects of sexism
Higher levels of hostile sexism, b ¼ .17, t ¼ 2.79,
against women. Hostile sexism (M ¼ 3.02, SD ¼ 1.09)
p ¼ .005, sr2 ¼ .12, and social dominance orientation,
scale items include “Women seek to gain power by
b ¼ .28, t ¼ 5.00, p < .001, sr2 ¼ .22, predicted
getting control over men” and “Women are too easily
sexual harassment in online games. Weekly game
offended.” Benevolent sexism (M ¼ 2.74, SD ¼ .91)
play, b ¼ .06, t ¼ 1.33, p ¼ .19, sr2 ¼ .06, game involve-
items include “Women should be cherished and
ment, b ¼ .02, t ¼ .39, p ¼ .70, sr2 ¼ .02, and benevolent
protected by men” and “Many women have a quality
sexism, b ¼ .01, t ¼ .28, p ¼ .78, sr2 ¼ .01, were not
of purity that men do not possess.” Participants
significant predictors.
indicated their agreement with these items on a 6-point
The proposed model also predicted general harass-
scale (1 ¼ Strongly disagree; 6 ¼ Strongly agree).
ment, R ¼ .43, adjusted R2 ¼ .19, F(5, 417) ¼ 12.95,
Cronbach’s reliability for HS was a ¼ .91 and for BS
p < .001. Higher levels of hostile sexism, b ¼ .21,
a ¼ .84.
t ¼ 3.57, p < .001, sr2 ¼ .16, social dominance orienta-
Game involvement. Participants responded to
tion, b ¼ .16, t ¼ 2.75, p ¼ .006, sr2 ¼ .12, game
three items regarding how involved, committed, and
involvement, b ¼ .09, t ¼ 2.01, p ¼ .045, sr2 ¼ .09, and
invested they were in this particular game (1 ¼ Not very;
weekly game play, b ¼ .14, t ¼ 2.97, p ¼ .003, sr2 ¼ .13,
5 ¼ Very; M ¼ 3.87, SD ¼ .83). Reliability was a ¼ .84.
predicted general harassment. Benevolent sexism was
Video game harassment behavior. Derived
not significant, b ¼ .08, t ¼ 1.77, p ¼ .08, sr2 ¼ .08.
from previous research on harassment in video game
settings (Fox & Tang, 2013, in press), participants were
DISCUSSION
asked to indicate which of two types of harassment
behavior they had performed within the selected This study found that certain personality factors and
game. Participants responded to five items (1 ¼ Never; contextual factors predict men’s harassment behavior in
5 ¼ Always) regarding their general harassment behavior online video games. Sexual harassment, including
(i.e., said curse or swear words toward another player; making sexist comments and joking about rape, was
made comments about intelligence; said general insults; predicted by social dominance orientation and hostile
made comments about others’ abilities to play; asked sexism. General harassment, such as swearing at a player
others to leave the game; M ¼ 2.27, SD ¼ .91; a ¼ .87) or insulting their intelligence or skill, was predicted by
and five items regarding their sexual harassment (i.e., social dominance orientation, hostile sexism, game
made sexist comments or insults; made comments about involvement, and weekly game play.
appearance or weight; doubted their motivations for Supporting our hypothesis and previous work (Maass
playing video games because of their gender; expressed et al., 2003; Russell & Trigg, 2004), social dominance
unsolicited liking of affection toward someone; made a orientation was related to both sexual and general
rape joke or threatened to rape; M ¼ 1.23, SD ¼ .56; harassment in online games. Given that SDO reflects the
a ¼ .83). endorsement of distinctions among social groups,

TABLE I. Zero-Order Correlations

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

VG play — .25 .14 .19 .03 .23 .14

Involvement — .01 .03 .01 .13 .04
SDO — .62 .16 .32 .40
Hostile sexism — .33 .36 .36
Benevolent sexism — .18 .11
General harassment — .58
Sexual harassment —
  
p < .05, p < .01, p  .001.

Aggr. Behav.

518 Tang and Fox
assessing SDO may further enrich studies using the
SIDE model. Theoretically, it may be that higher levels
of SDO increase the likelihood that hostile communica-
tion will occur because these individuals feel a need to
establish boundaries and distinguish themselves from
outgroup members who are perceived as inferior. To
examine this link, future research may measure
participants’ SDO and employ an experimental harass-
ment paradigm such as that used by Maass et al. (2003)
or a quasi-experimental approach such as that used by
Kuznekoff and Rose (2013) to examine hostile
communication toward outgroup members.
Our study also found that hostile sexism was related to
both sexual harassment and general harassment. One
explanation for this finding is that we did not specifically
ask whom participants targeted for harassment. It may be
that sexist men target women for both types of
harassment. In contrast to hostile sexism, benevolent
sexism was not related to either form of harassment.
Future research may investigate other forms of unde-
sired behavior in online games. Benevolent sexism, for
example, may lead players to attempt to “white knight”
and protect other women players. These attempts at
paternalistic chivalry may anger or annoy women,
interfere with their gameplay, or reinforce stereotypes
among other players that women are not capable of
playing the game (Yee, 2014). Conversely, men may
genuinely confront sexist or harassing behavior, but they
may be perceived as having ulterior motives (Shelton &
Stewart, 2004). These social costs may dissuade men
from intervening when they observe harassment as they
themselves could become targets of harassment or others
could misconstrue the intent of their actions.
Game involvement and time spent gaming predicted
general harassment, which may be due to socialization
processes in many online games. This finding reflects
Ross and Weaver’s (2012) study in which participants
who encountered antisocial behavior within a video
game later replicated those types of behavior. It is
possible that the more time players spend in these hostile
online games, the more likely they are socialized into a
culture of harassment and begin to normalize (and
perhaps perpetrate) harassment. A recent longitudinal
survey offers some support for this possibility, as
adolescents’ beliefs in the acceptability of cyberaggres-
sion predicts later cyberaggressive behavior (Wright &
Li, 2013). Our findings for sexual harassment, however,
indicated that personality traits were the only predictors.
Individuals high in SDO and hostile sexism may be
prone to sexually harass women across contexts,
regardless of their relationship with an existing game.
Another possibility is that traditional media or video
game content may normalize harassment behavior,
effectively desensitizing players to its destructive nature.
Aggr. Behav.
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Exposure to media violence desensitizes individuals
towards actual violent acts and also diminishes
sympathy for victims (Fanti, Vanman, Henrich, &
Avraamides, 2009; Funk, Bechtoldt Baldacci, Pasold, &
Baumgardner, 2004; Krah
e, M€oller, Huesmann, Kirwil,
Felber, & Berger, 2011). Mediated aggression and violence
directed toward women also leads to more callous attitudes
towards women and desensitization towards women’s
experiences with domestic violence and rape (Linz,
Donnerstein, & Penrod, 1988; Linz, Donnerstein, &
Adams, 1989; Mullin & Linz, 1995). Investigating the
role of video game content, as well as a broader scope of
media exposure, may lend more insight into the onset and
prevalence of harassment, both offline and online.
Although our findings focused broadly on networked
video games, it is important to note that our findings will
not necessarily generalize to all types of networked
games. One limitation of this study was that we confined
the assessment of harassment to a single game of the
player’s choice. The game that participants chose may
not be representative of the normal level of harassment
they engage in, observe, or experience across the games
they play. Different online games foster different
cultures, which may be due to game features or the
type of players involved in the specific game. Indeed,
several games included in this study are known for being
competitive and heavily populated by men (e.g., Call of
Duty). Other research has shown gendered preferences
for game genres (Quandt et al., 2014), which may make
sexual harassment of women more common due to a
hostile climate or less common simply because women
are less likely to be observed in the environment. Other
contextual features may also mitigate or exacerbate
harassment, such as cooperative gameplay (Velez,
Mahood, Ewoldsen, & Moyer-Gus
e, 2012), aggressive
content (Gitter, Ewell, Guadagno, Stillman, & Bau-
meister, 2013; Saleem, Anderson, & Gentile, 2012), or a
player’s performance (Kasumovic & Kuznekoff, 2015).
Other variables, such as rank or status within a game,
should also be considered given power has been shown
to be an important variable in harassment and bullying
(Barlett, 2015; Pryor et al., 1995). Future research
should investigate more structural, cultural, and contex-
tual features of games and their relationship to
harassment.
Additionally, as our findings suggest, individual
differences play a large part in whether or not players
harass others. Research investigating online hostility
should take into account trait and other individual
predictors that contribute to aggression. Gender role
orientation and identification as a gamer may provide
further insight into applying the SIDE model to this
context. Other predictors of cyberaggression, such as
moral disengagement (Page & Pina, 2015; Page, Pina, &

Giner-Sorolla, in press; Pornari & Wood, 2010), hostile
attribution bias (Pornari & Wood, 2010), and perceptions
of anonymity (Barlett, 2015; Ritter, 2014; Wright & Li,
2013) may also explain harassment in online games.
Because this survey used a volunteer sample recruited
from online sites, samples drawn from other sources may
produce different results. Further, survey research is
limited in the conclusions that can be drawn due to the use
of self-report data. Given its social undesirability, men
may have been unwilling to report their harassing
behavior (Dekker & Barling, 1998), which may explain
the small to moderate correlations observed in this study.
Our low means may indicate a type of floor effect for self-
reporting this behavior. It is possible that players who
frequently harass chose not to disclose this on the survey
or opted not to take the survey in the first place. Men who
defend the hostility, trash talking, and harassment as “just
part of the game,” or who recognize the socially
undesirable nature of their behavior may have deliber-
ately underreported or avoided the survey entirely,
perhaps to protect their gamer identity (Nauroth et al.,
2015). Thus, it is likely that our findings underreport the
frequency of harassment. Alternative methods, including
content analytical techniques and field experiments (Holz
Ivory et al., 2014; Kuznekoff & Rose, 2013), would
provide further insight on harassment in games.
In this study, we chose to focus on men, the predominant
social identity associated with gaming, given the
predictions of the SIDE model and previous work
indicating that men perpetuate more harassment both in
video games (Ballard & Welch, 2016; Fox & Tang, 2013)
and in the physical world (Pina et al., 2009). Future studies
should investigate women’s harassment behavior in online
video games, as well as how outgroup members perceive
and respond to harassment behavior. Another shortcoming
of this study is that we did not gather data on the targets of
harassment. Future research should probe who is targeted
and what factors predict the targeting of specific groups.
A major concern for alleviating the issue of harassment
in games is that both perpetrators and bystanders may
have little desire or incentive to stop the behavior. The
same factors that enable harassment to perpetuate offline
may exist online. For example, players may not perceive
any harm, especially in an anonymous environment for a
leisure activity in which players have the ability to quit at
any time. Alternatively, they may fear retribution from
other players for speaking out. Resources to educate
players about the nature of harassment and system
affordances that encourage reporting incidents may
diminish the behavior or encourage more intervention
from bystanders (Dillon & Bushman, 2015).
Additionally, those who identify as gamers have been
shown to resist evidence that games have a dark side as
well (Nauroth et al., 2015). Indeed, one limitation of this
10982337, 2016, 6, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ab.21646 by University Of British Columbia, Wiley Online Library on [20/03/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
Harassment in Video Games 519
study is that gamers may have recognized the purpose of
this study and underreported their harassment behavior.
Despite scientific evidence to the contrary (e.g., Fox &
Tang, in press; Pew Research Center, 2014), men who
play may continue to endorse the idea that harassment is a
harmless and acceptable behavior (Page et al., in press).
Other channels of communication about gaming, such as
game-related forums, Reddit threads, YouTube videos
and comments, and chat during Twitch live streams, may
also contribute to players’ attitudes and the dismissal of
harassment as a pernicious behavior. Future research
should investigate players’ beliefs about the prevalence,
severity, and consequences of harassment for others as
well as their exposure to myths about harassment in
games. A recent study indicates that drawing attention to
victims’ experiences may mitigate harassment (Diehl,
Glaser, & Bohner, 2014); interventions may be similarly
effective in counteracting myths or incredulity about the
impact of harassment in games.
In summary, this study has established that men’s
harassment behavior in online games is predicted by the
same psychological factors that predict harassment in
other social contexts. Furthermore, the degree of
involvement in a game may further promote harassment,
perhaps indicating the influence that peers, game content,
and game creators have on individual players’ social
experiences. Going forward, it is important to identify
how harassment can be managed in online environments.
Although there are decades of research on sexual
harassment, the rise of computer-mediated communica-
tion raises the question of whether findings in face-to-face
environments apply, as well as how well proposed
solutions derived from that research would work in an
online environment. From an applied standpoint, it is
necessary to continue to probe the nature of harassment in
online video games to ensure that these environments are
not perpetually hostile to women and minorities.
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