“How does playing as an opposite-sex character affect a male player’s behavior?
In a recent study, we examined how male and female players in World of Warcraft behave in the game when they gender bend. We found that players conform to the stereotypes associated with their avatar’s gender. Thus, while there is a pervasive stereotype that women prefer to heal in MMOs, we found that this wasn’t actually true. In WoW, men and women have the same proportion of healing to damage done. Where we did find an effect was with avatar gender. Female avatars heal more than male avatars. What we found is that when people gender bend, they conformed to the expectations of healing. In short, a false stereotype is made true in a virtual world via play. We often think that virtual worlds free us from norms and gender roles rooted in the physical world, but this data point shows us that virtual worlds can exaggerate and reinforce gender stereotypes.”
from “Walk on the Wild Side” by Michael Thomsen
![gottacatchemall:
[Hipster Pokemon Snap]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lo1ywwEXeZ1qa8kbzo1_500.jpg)
