BEASLEY SHIRTS VS SKINS Clothing as an Indicator of Gender Role Stereotyping in Video Games Connection between violent media content and increased levels of aggression Demonstrated to affect attitudes toward acceptable gender role behavior o Correlation between consumption of media content and attitudes toward acceptable gender related clothing and behavior Video game industry is still in its infancy o Are steadily becoming household fixtures o Repeated play ongoing experience that reinforces its social messages Majority of players are young men Contain more masculine than feminine players Children can and do learn gender riles from media Gender Schema Theory process of applying leaned sex concepts to new information o Children form schemata of what behaviors attitudes and clothing are appropriately masculine or feminine through accumulated experiences Can arrive at personal definition through internal processes 1998 research of 33 video games and portrayal of women outdated What creates original schemata 41 had no female role 28 considered sex objects 80 included violence and aggression as part of strategy o 21 directed violence towards women Method Population of video games was gathered only available not adult only games chosen Random sample taken from entire list 48 games total Character defined as human animal or object with human like qualities o Coders played for 20 minutes to get idea of characters o Coded for type of game clothing worn gender species rating game system breast size Clothing neckline lower body sleeve length Conclusion Considerable gender role stereotyping in video games Female characters vastly underrepresented in video games o More indeterminate gender than female genders animals aliens o Most females appeared in individual sport and storyline games Of female characters most presented with less clothing than male counterparts o More likely to be seen in low cut clothing and bare arms o Nearly half were big busted Voluptuous women appeared in E rated games young children o Dressed in way to bring attention to their bodies breasts in particular Children exposed to gender role stereotyping may develop these attitudes themselves o Social learning and gender schema theory suggest o Dominant theme is female characters are unimportant o Most just emphasize their sexuality Limitations Every character was coded regardless of importance to the game Character should be coded as to their importance in game Further studies should also focus on behavior not just clothing and appearance Violence heroes villains dominant submissive Clothing coding was not detailed enough Did not catch some nuances of female clothing o Eg bathing suits and thongs Didn t emphasize male gender role stereotyping o Showing off muscle definition and exposure PETTY CENTRAL AND PERIPHERAL ROUTES Consumer evaluations are affected by media advertisements Two distinct routes to attitude change Central Route views attitude change as resulting from a person s diligent consideration of information that s he feels is central to the true merits of a attitudinal position Cognitive justification of attitude discrepant behavior Comprehensive learning and retention of issue product relevant information Nature of a person s idiosyncratic cognitive responses to external communications Manner in which a person combines and integrates beliefs into overall evaluative reaction o Relatively enduring and predictive of behavior Peripheral Route Attitude issue or object is associated with positive or negative cues person makes a simple inference about merits based on simple cues in persuasion context Simple attitudinal inference can be made based on observing one s own behavior Whether advocacy falls within one s latitude of acceptance or rejection Whether some transient situational utility is associated with adopting a particular attitude relevant cues Whether advocated position product is classically conditioned to basic but issue o Relatively temporary and unpredictive of behavior Neither central nor peripheral approach alone accounts for diversity in attitude changes Involvement and Attitude Change High involvement messages have greater personal relevance and consequences or elicit more personal connections than low involvement messages Participants broken into high and low involvement groups experiment o Told they would be evaluating advertisements for products High Product would be available locally soon could take one home as gift Low Product would not be available gift from something other than experiment category Elaboration Likelihood Model ELM Different methods of persuasion work best depending on whether the elaboration likelihood of the communication situation is high or low High Central route to persuasion should be more effective Low peripheral route should be more effective o As product increases in personal relevance becomes more important to forming a reasoned opinion Extensive thought products are more effective for high involvement condition o Attitudes are functions of information processing Little engagement products are more effective for low involvement condition o Simple acceptance and rejection cues Test of utility of ELM Study where three variables were manipulated o Personal relevance of a shampoo ad involvement o Quality of arguments contained in the ad o Physical attractiveness of the endorsers of the shampoo Quality of argument had greater impact on high involvement Attractiveness was equally important in both low and high o Hair may have served as persuasive visual testimony Method Participants randomly assigned to high and low involvement conditions 160 subjects of college kids Randomly assigned to 2 x 2 x 2 category o Involvement high low o Argument quality strong week o Celebrity status famous nonfamous Given a magazine booklet with 10 ads 6th was Edge Viewed 1 of 4 different ads for fictitious edge disposable razor o Quality of argument o Celebrity status of endorses Manipulated After booklet given a questionnaire to complete Variables Involvement Argument Quality Peripheral Cue o Free razor high or free toothpaste low o Marketed in city high marketed in east coast low o Scientifically designed strong or designed for beauty low o Athletes golfer and tennis celebrity or average citizens non celebrity Conclusion Low involvement product advertisement o Celebrity of endorser is important High involvement product advertisement o Celebrity of endorser had no effect on attitude o