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

Pennington, Charlotte; Kaye, Linda K.; McCann, Joseph J.

Abstract

© 2018 Pennington et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Females often report experiencing stigmatisation pertaining to their competency in digital gaming communities. Employing the principles of the multi-Threat framework of stereotype threat, the current research examined the impact of gender-related stereotypes on females' gaming performance and related self-perceptions. In Experiment 1, 90 females were assigned to one of three conditions in which they were primed that their performance would be either diagnostic of their personal (self-As-Target) or gender group's ability (group-As-Target) or would be non-diagnostic of gaming ability (control). In Experiment 2, 90 females were primed that their performance would be judged by a group of other females (in-group source) or males (out-group source), or would be non-diagnostic of ability (control). Participants then completed a casual gaming task, as well as measures of competence beliefs, self-efficacy and self-esteem. Findings from Experiment 1 indicate that neither a self-As-Target nor a group-As-Target stereotype affected significantly gaming performance, or gamerelated self-efficacy, self-esteem and competency beliefs. Findings from Experiment 2 reveal further that females' gaming performance and associated self-perceptions were not impacted significantly by an in-group or out-group source of stereotype threat. The discussion turns to potential explanations for these findings, proposing that females may not perceive negative gender-gaming stereotypes to be an accurate representation of their personal or social group's gaming ability. We also discuss the implications of the experimental design and difficulty, as well as the potential for domain identification to moderate performance outcomes under stereotype threat.

Citation

Pennington, C., Kaye, L. K., & McCann, J. J. (2018). Applying the multi-Threat framework of stereotype threat in the context of digital gaming. PLoS ONE, 13(2), e0192137. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192137

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 17, 2018
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Feb 23, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 23, 2018
• Journal: PLoS ONE
• Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 2
• Pages: e0192137
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192137
• Keywords: Research Article, Biology and life sciences, Social sciences, Research and analysis methods
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/871490
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192137
• Related Public URLs: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/