Citation

Yao MZ, Mahood C, Linz D. Sex Roles 2010; 62(1-2): 77-88.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11199-009-9695-4

PMID

20098511

PMCID

PMC2807025

Abstract

The present study examines the short-term cognitive effects of playing a sexually explicit video game with female "objectification" content on male players. Seventy-four male students from a university in California, U.S. participated in a laboratory experiment. They were randomly assigned to play either a sexually-explicit game or one of two control games. Participants' cognitive accessibility to sexual and sexually objectifying thoughts was measured in a lexical decision task. A likelihood-to-sexually-harass scale was also administered. Results show that playing a video game with the theme of female "objectification" may prime thoughts related to sex, encourage men to view women as sex objects, and lead to self-reported tendencies to behave inappropriately towards women in social situations.

Language: en