Real 'gender-related' stereotypes can follow women into virtual worlds

A new study has suggested that real stereotypes related to gender and appearance continue to exist in virtual worlds for women.

Penn State's T. Franklin Waddell said that in a study of how people interacted with avatars in an online game, women received less help from fellow players than men when they operated an unattractive avatar and when they used a male avatar.

Waddell noted that it doesn't matter if you have an ugly avatar or not, if you're a man, you'll still receive about the same amount of help, but if you are a woman and operate an unattractive avatar, you will receive significantly less help.

Waddell said that overall, many of the same gender and sexual stereotypes seem to permeate the online worlds, adding that the study supports the idea that people's responses to stereotypes and norms follow them from real life into virtual environments.

Although woman are typically less penalized for engaging in cross-sex behavior than men in offline settings, researchers found an opposite pattern in the online setting, such that men were allowed to control either a male or female avatar without penalty, whereas women were penalized for controlling an opposite-sex avatar, Waddell added.

He noted that in other words, when the stereotype would typically benefit women, the pattern was flipped in the virtual world, allowing men to engage in "gender bending" with their avatar, whereas women were not encouraged to.

The findings suggest that businesses may want to offer fewer, not more, options if workers use avatars to interact with colleagues or customers, according to the researchers.

The study is published in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media.