Research has indicated that many video games and virtual worlds are populated by unrealistic, hypersexualized representations of women, but the effects of using these representations remain understudied. Objectification theory suggests that women’s exposure to sexualized media representations leads to self-objectification. Further, we anticipated this process would lead to increases in rape myth acceptance (RMA). Two experiments (Study 1, N = 87; Study 2, N = 81) examined the effects of avatar features on women’s experiences of self-objectification. In both studies, college women exposed to sexualized avatars experienced higher levels of self-objectification after the virtual experience than those exposed to nonsexualized avatars. Furthermore, in Study 2, self-objectification mediated the relationship between controlling a sexualized avatar and subsequent levels of RMA. We discuss the implications of women using sexualized avatars in video games and virtual environments, which may lead to negative attitudes about the self and other women off-line due to heightened self-objectification. Additional online materials for this article are available to PWQ subscribers on PWQ's website at http://pwq.sagepub.com/supplemental.
AhnS. J.BailensonJ. N. (2011). Self-endorsing versus other-endorsing in virtual environments: The effect on brand preference. Journal of Advertising, 40, 93–106. doi:10.2753/JOA0091-3367400207
2.
AhnS. J.FoxJ.DaleK. R.AvantJ. A. (in press). Framing virtual experiences: Effects on environmental efficacy and behavior over time. Communication Research. doi:10.1177/0093650214534973
3.
AhnS. J.LeA. M. T.BailensonJ. (2013). The effect of embodied experiences on self-other merging, attitude, and helping behavior. Media Psychology, 16, 7–38. doi:10.1080/15213269.2012.755877
4.
AllenM.EmmersT.GebhardtL.GieryM. (1995). Exposure to pornography and acceptance of rape myths. Journal of Communication, 45, 5–26. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.1995.tb00711.x
5.
American Psychological Association, Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. (2007). Report of the APA task force on the sexualization of girls. Washington, DC: Authors.
6.
AndersonC. A.BushmanB. J. (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12, 353–359. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00366
7.
AubreyJ. S. (2006a). Effects of sexually objectifying media on self-objectification and body surveillance in undergraduates: Results of a 2-year panel study. Journal of Communication, 56, 366–386. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00024.x
8.
AubreyJ. S. (2006b). Exposure to sexually objectifying media and body self-perceptions among college women: An examination of the selective exposure hypothesis and the role of moderating variables. Sex Roles, 55, 159–172. doi:10.1007/s11199-006-9070-7
9.
AubreyJ. S.HensonJ. R.HopperK. M.SmithS. E. (2009). A picture is worth twenty words (about the self): Testing the priming influence of visual sexual objectification on women’s self-objectification. Communication Research Reports, 26, 271–284. doi: 10.1080/08824090903293551
10.
AubreyJ. S.HopperK. M.MbureW. G. (2011). Check that body! The effects of sexually objectifying music videos on college men’s sexual beliefs. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 55, 360–379. doi:10.1080/08838151.2011.597469
11.
BanduraA. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
12.
BartkyS. (1990). Femininity and domination. New York, NY: Routledge.
13.
BastianB.JettenJ.RadkeH. R. (2012). Cyber-dehumanization: Violent video game play diminishes our humanity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 486–491. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.10.009
14.
BaylorA.PlantE. A. (2005). Pedagogical agents as social models for engineering: The influence of appearance on female choice. In LooiC. K.McCallaG.BredewegB.BreukerJ. (Eds.), Artificial intelligence in education: Supporting learning through intelligent and socially informed technology (Vol. 125, pp. 65–72). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: IOS Press.
15.
Behm-MorawitzE.GerdingA. (2013, June). Virtual self-sexualization: The consequences of female self-objectification in a virtual world on self-objectification. Paper presented at the 63rd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, London, England.
16.
Behm-MorawitzE.MastroD. (2009). The effects of the sexualization of female video game characters on gender stereotyping and female self-concept. Sex Roles, 61, 808–823. doi:10.1007/s11199-009-9683-8
17.
BlakeC.HefnerD.RothC.KlimmtC.VordererP. (2012). Cognitive processes involved in video game identification. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 7522, 75–84. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-33542-6_7
18.
BlascovichJ.LoomisJ.BeallA. C.SwinthK. R.HoytC. L.BailensonJ. N. (2002). Immersive virtual environment technology as methodological tool for social psychology. Psychological Inquiry, 13, 103–124. doi:10.1207/S15327965PLI1302_01
19.
BrownJ. A. (2011). Dangerous curves: Action heroines, gender, fetishism and popular culture. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.
20.
BrownmillerS. (1975). Against our will: Men, women, and rape. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
21.
BurgessM. C. R.StermerS. P.BurgessS. R. (2007). Sex, lies, and video games: The portrayal of male and female characters on video game covers. Sex Roles, 57, 419–433. doi:10.1007/s11199-007-9250-0
22.
BurtM. R. (1980). Cultural myths and supports for rape. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 38, 217–230. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.38.2.217
23.
CalogeroR. M. (2004). A test of objectification theory: The effect of the male gaze on appearance concerns in college women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28, 16–21. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2004.00118.x
24.
CalogeroR. M. (2011). Operationalizing self-objectification: Assessment and related methodological issues. In CalogeroR. M.Tantleff-DunnS.ThompsonJ. K. (Eds.), Self-objectification in women: Causes, consequences, and counteractions (pp. 23–49). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
25.
CalogeroR. M. (2013). On objects and actions: Situating self-objectification in a system justification context. In GervaisS. J. (Ed.), Objectification and dehumanization (pp. 97–126). New York, NY: Springer.
26.
ChenZ.TengF.ZhangH. (2013). Sinful flesh: Sexual objectification threatens women’s moral self. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 1042–1048. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2013.07.008S
27.
CikaraM.EberhardtJ. L.FiskeS. T. (2011). From agents to objects: Sexist attitudes and neural responses to sexualized targets. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23, 540–551. doi:10.1162/jocn.2010.21497
28.
CohenJ. (2001). Defining identification: A theoretical look at the identification of audiences with media characters. Mass Communication & Society, 4, 245–264. doi:10.1207/S15327825MCS0403_01
29.
DanielsE. A. (2009). Sex objects, athletes, and sexy athletes: How media representations of women athletes can impact adolescent girls and college women. Journal of Adolescent Research, 24, 399–422. doi:10.1177/0743558409336748
30.
Deuber-MankowskyA. (2005). Lara Croft: Cyber heroine (BonfiglioD. J., Trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
31.
DillK. E.BrownB. P.CollinsM. A. (2008). Effects of exposure to sex-stereotyped video game characters on tolerance of sexual harassment. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1402–1408. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2008.06.002
32.
DownsE.SmithS. L. (2010). Keeping abreast of hypersexuality: A video game character content analysis. Sex Roles, 62, 721–733. doi:10.1007/s11199-009-9637-1
33.
DunnR. A.GuadagnoR. E. (2012). My avatar and me: Gender and personality predictors of avatar self-discrepancy. Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 97–106. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.08.015
34.
EastinM. S.AppiahO.CicchirlloV. (2009). Identification and the influence of cultural stereotyping on postvideogame hostility. Human Communication Research, 35, 337–356. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2009.01354.x
35.
Entertainment Software Association. (2014). 2014 Sales, demographic and usage data: Essential facts about the computer and video game industry. Washington, DC: Authors.
36.
Ersner-HershfieldH.GoldsteinD. G.SharpeW. F.FoxJ.YeykelisL.CarstensenL. L.BailensonJ. N. (2011). Increasing saving behavior through age-progressed renderings of the future self. Journal of Marketing Research, 48, S23–S37. doi:10.1509/jmkr.48.SPL.S23
37.
FoxJ.BailensonJ. N. (2009a). Virgins and vamps: The effects of exposure to female characters’ sexualized appearance and gaze in an immersive virtual environment. Sex Roles, 61, 147–157. doi:10.1007/s11199-009-9599-3
38.
FoxJ.BailensonJ. N. (2009b). Virtual self-modeling: The effects of vicarious reinforcement and identification on exercise behaviors. Media Psychology, 12, 1–25. doi:10.1080/15213260802669474
39.
FoxJ.BailensonJ. N.TricaseL. (2013). The embodiment of sexualized virtual selves: The Proteus effect and experiences of self-objectification via avatars. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 930–938. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.027
40.
FredricksonB. L.RobertsT.-A. (1997). Objectification theory: Toward understanding women’s lived experienced and mental health risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 173–206. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x
41.
FredricksonB. L.RobertsT.-A.NollS. M.QuinnD. M.TwengeJ. M. (1998). That swimsuit becomes you: Sex differences in self-objectification, restrained eating, and math performance. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 75, 269–284. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.269
42.
GaldiS.MaassA.CadinuM. (2014). Objectifying media: Their effect on gender role norms and sexual harassment of women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 38, 398–413. doi:10.1177/0361684313515185
43.
GanahlD. J.PrinsenT. J.NetzleyS. B. (2003). A content analysis of prime time commercials: A contextual framework of gender representation. Sex Roles, 49, 545–551. doi:10.1023/A:1025893025658
44.
GervaisS. J.VescioT. K.AllenJ. (2011). When what you see is what you get: The consequences of the objectifying gaze for women and men. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 35, 5–17. doi:10.1177/0361684310386121
45.
GillR. (2008). Empowerment/sexism: Figuring female sexual agency in contemporary advertising. Feminism & Psychology, 18, 35–60. doi:10.1177/0959353507084950
46.
GlickP.FiskeS. T. (1996). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 70, 491–512. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.70.3.491
47.
GordonM. K. (2008). Media contributions to African-American girls’ focus on beauty and appearance: Exploring the consequences of sexual objectification. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 32, 246–256. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2008.00433.x
48.
GrabeS.HydeJ. S. (2009). Body objectification, MTV, and psychological outcomes among female adolescents. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39, 2840–2858. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2009.00552.x
49.
GrabeS.JacksonB. (2009). Self-objectification and depressive symptoms: Does their association vary among Asian American and White American men and women?Body Image, 6, 141–144. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2009.02.001
50.
GrabeS.WardL. M.HydeJ. S. (2008). The role of the media in body image concerns among women: A meta-analysis of experimental and correlational studies. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 460–476. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.134.3.460
51.
GreitemeyerT. (2013). Effects of playing video games on perceptions of one’s humanity. The Journal of Social Psychology, 153, 499–514. doi:10.1080/00224545.2013.768593
52.
GuadagnoR. E.MuscanellN. L.OkdieB. M.BurkN. M.WardT. B. (2011). Even in virtual environments women shop and men build: A social role perspective on Second Life. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 304–308. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2010.08.008
53.
GuadagnoR. E.SwinthK. R.BlascovichJ. (2011). Social evaluations of embodied agents and avatars. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 2380–2385. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.07.017
54.
HalliwellE.MalsonH.TischnerI. (2011). Are contemporary media images which seem to display women as sexually empowered actually harmful to women?Psychology of Women Quarterly, 35, 38–45. doi:10.1177/0361684310385217
55.
HaslamN.LoughnanS.HollandE. (2013). The psychology of humanness. In GervaisS. J. (Ed.), Objectification and dehumanization (pp. 25–51). New York, NY: Springer.
56.
HayesA. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: Guilford.
57.
HeblM. R.KingE. B.LinJ. (2004). The swimsuit becomes us all: Ethnicity, gender, and vulnerability to self-objectification. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1322–1331. doi:10.1177/0146167204264052
58.
HeflickN. A.GoldenbergJ. L. (2009). Objectifying Sarah Palin: Evidence that objectification causes women to be perceived as less competent and less fully human. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 598–601. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2009.02.008
59.
HeflickN. A.GoldenbergJ. L.CooperD. P.PuviaE. (2011). From women to objects: Appearance focus, target gender, and perceptions of warmth, morality and competence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 572–581. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2010.12.020
60.
HickmanS. E.MuehlenhardC. L. (1997). College women’s fears and precautionary behaviors relating to acquaintance rape and stranger rape. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 527–547. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00129.x
61.
HinckS. S.ThomasR.W. (1999). Rape myth acceptance in college students: How far have we come?Sex Roles, 40, 815–832. doi:10.1023/A:1018816920168
62.
HoytC. L.BlascovichJ. (2007). Leadership efficacy and women leaders’ responses to stereotype activation. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 10, 595–616. doi:10.1177/1368430207084718
63.
JanszJ.MartisR. G. (2007). The Lara phenomenon: Powerful female characters in video games. Sex Roles, 56, 141–148. doi:10.1007/s11199-006-9158-0
64.
JensonJ.De CastellS. (2010). Gender, simulation, and gaming: Research review and redirections. Simulation & Gaming, 41, 51–71. doi:10.1177/1046878109353473
65.
KahlorL. A.EastinM. S. (2011). Television’s role in the culture of violence toward women: A study of television viewing and the cultivation of rape myth acceptance in the United States. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 55, 215–231. doi:10.1080/08838151.2011.566085
66.
KahlorL. A.MorrisonD. (2007). Television viewing and rape myth acceptance among college women. Sex Roles, 56, 729–739. doi:10.1007/s11199-007-9232-2
67.
KennedyH. W. (2002). Lara Croft: Feminist icon or cyberbimbo? On the limits of textual analysis. Game Studies: International Journal of Computer Games Research, 2. Retrieved fromhttp://www.gamestudies.org/0202/kennedy/
68.
KlimmtC.HefnerD.VordererP. (2009). The video game experience as “true” identification: A theory of enjoyable alterations of players’ self-perception. Communication Theory, 19, 351–373. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2009.01347.x
69.
KlimmtC.HefnerD.VordererP.RothC.BlakeC. (2010). Identification with video game characters as automatic shift of self-perceptions. Media Psychology, 13, 323–338. doi:10.1080/15213269.2010.524911
70.
KonijnE. A.BijvankM. N.BushmanB. J. (2007). I wish I were a warrior: The role of wishful identification in the effects of violent video games on aggression in adolescent boys. Developmental Psychology, 43, 1038–1044. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.43.4.1038
71.
LanisK.CovellK. (1995). Images of women in advertisements: Effects on attitudes related to sexual aggression. Sex Roles, 32, 639–649. doi:10.1007/BF01544216
72.
LindnerD.Tantleff-DunnS.JentschF. (2012). Social comparison and the ‘circle of objectification.’Sex Roles, 67, 222–235. doi:10.1007/s11199-012-0175-x
73.
LonswayK. A.FitzgeraldL. F. (1994). Rape myths: In review. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 133–164. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1994.tb00448.x
74.
LoughnanS.HaslamN.MurnaneT.VaesJ.ReynoldsC.SuitnerC. (2010). Objectification leads to depersonalization: The denial of mind and moral concern to objectified others. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 709–717. doi:10.1002/ejsp.755
75.
LoughnanS.PinaA.VasquezE. A.PuviaE. (2013). Sexual objectification increases rape victim blame and decreases perceived suffering. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 37, 455–461. doi:10.1177/0361684313485718
76.
MoradiB.HuangY.-P. (2008). Objectification theory and psychology of women: A decade of advances and future directions. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 32, 377–398. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2008.00452.x
77.
MuehlenkampJ. J.Saris-BaglamaR. N. (2002). Self-objectification and its psychological outcomes for college women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26, 371–379. doi:10.1111/1471-6402.t01-1-00076
78.
MundorfN.D’AlessioD.AllenM.Emmers-SommerT. M. (2006). Effects of pornography. In PreissR. W.GayleB. M.BurrellN.AllenM.BryantJ. (Eds.), Mass media effects research: Advances through meta-analysis (pp. 173–189). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
79.
NollS. M.FredricksonB. L. (1998). A mediational model linking self-objectification, body shame, and disordered eating. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22, 623–636. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1998.tb00181.x
80.
NowakK. L.HamiltonM. A.HammondC. C. (2009). The effect of image features on judgments of homophily, credibility, and intention to use as avatars in future interactions. Media Psychology, 12, 50–76. doi:10.1080/15213260802669433
81.
NowakK. L.RauhC. (2006). The influence of the avatar on online perceptions of anthropomorphism, androgyny, credibility, homophily, and attraction. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11, 153–178. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.tb00308.x
82.
PuviaE.VaesJ. (2013). Being a body: Women’s appearance related self-views and their dehumanization of sexually objectified female targets. Sex Roles, 68, 484–495. doi:10.1007/s11199-012-0255-y
83.
QuinnD. M.KallenR. W.CatheyC. (2006). Body on my mind: The lingering effect of state self-objectification. Sex Roles, 55, 869–874. doi:10.1007/s11199-006-9140-x
84.
QuinnD. M.KallenR. W.TwengeJ. M.FredricksonB. L. (2006). The disruptive effect of self-objectification on performance. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30, 59–64. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-6402.2006.00262.x
RivaG. (2011). The key to unlocking the virtual body: Virtual reality in the treatment of obesity and eating disorders. Journal of Diabetes Science & Technology, 5, 283–292.
87.
RoyseP.LeeJ.UndrahbuyanB.HopsonM.ConsalvoM. (2007). Women and games: Technologies of the gendered self. New Media & Society, 9, 555–576. doi:10.1177/1461444807080322
88.
RudmanL. A.MescherK. (2012). Of animals and objects: Men’s implicit dehumanization of women and likelihood of sexual aggression. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 734–746. doi:10.1177/0146167212436401
89.
SlaterA.TiggemannM. (2002). A test of objectification theory in adolescent girls. Sex Roles, 46, 343–349. doi:10.1023/A:1020232714705
90.
StankiewiczJ. M.RosselliF. (2008). Women as sex objects and victims in print advertisements. Sex Roles, 57, 579–589. doi:10.1007/s11199-007-9359-1
91.
StarrC. R.FergusonG. M. (2012). Sexy dolls, sexy grade-schoolers? Media & maternal influences on young girls’ self-sexualization. Sex Roles, 67, 463–476. doi:10.1007/s11199-012-0183-x
92.
SummersA.MillerM. K. (in press). From damsels in distress to sexy superheroes: How the portrayal of sexism in video game magazines has changed in the last 20 years. Feminist Media Studies. doi:10.1080/14680777.2014.882371
93.
UhlmannE.SwansonJ. (2004). Exposure to violent video games increases automatic aggressiveness. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 41–52. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2003. 10.004
94.
VaesJ.PaladinoP.PuviaE. (2011). Are sexualized women complete human beings? Why men and women dehumanize sexually objectified women. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 774–785. doi:10.1002/ejsp.824
95.
VandenboschL.EggermontS. (2012). Understanding sexual objectification: A comprehensive approach toward media exposure and girls’ internalization of beauty ideals, self-objectification, and body surveillance. Journal of Communication, 62, 869–887. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01667.x
96.
Van LooyJ.CourtoisC.de VochtM.de MarezL. (2012). Player identification in online games: Validation of a scale for measuring identification in MMOGs. Media Psychology, 15, 197–221. doi:10.1080/15213269.2012.674917
97.
WilliamsD.MartinsN.ConsalvoM.IvoryJ. D. (2009). The virtual census: Representations of gender, race and age in video games. New Media & Society, 11, 815–834. doi:10.1177/1461444809105354
98.
YaoM. Z.MahoodC.LinzD. (2010). Sexual priming, gender stereotyping, and likelihood to sexually harass: Examining the cognitive effects of playing a sexually-explicit video game. Sex Roles, 62, 77–88. doi:10.1007/s11199-009-9695-4
99.
YeeN.BailensonJ. N. (2007). The Proteus effect: Self transformations in virtual reality. Human Communication Research, 33, 271–290. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2007.00299.x
100.
YeeN.BailensonJ. N.UrbanekM.ChangF.MergetD. (2007). The unbearable likeness of being digital: The persistence of nonverbal social norms in online virtual environments. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10, 115–121. doi:10.1089/cpb.2006.9984
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
