Study finds link between avatar gender and game play behaviour

Dr Kim Szolin, lead researcher and psychologist at NTU's School of Social Sciences, said: "We looked at game play behaviour from the view of the Proteus effect, which suggests that players' attitudes and behaviours may be influenced by the observed characteristics of their avatar.

"Research suggests that even something as fundamental to a person's identity as gender can be temporarily replaced by the adopted gender of their avatar."

The study focused on Fallout: New Vegas as the game gives players a large amount of freedom and choice in how to play the game, meaning that they may be more easily influenced by their avatar without being constrained by game-based restrictions that could inhibit occurrence of the Proteus effect.

The game also provides players with freedom of choice in how they complete quests or missions and how they interact or navigate through the game world.

A player may also deviate from the intended activities and quests route and either skip or avoid missions to pursue other in-game activities, such as completing minor quests, collecting items and equipment, or even spending time gambling for in-game currency.

Kim added: "Our results suggest that players who identify more strongly with their avatars may derive more enjoyment from the game and are therefore more motivated to play and perform well.

"However, the finding that female avatars were associated with a higher number of in-game kills might be explained by a shift in the representation of female characters in media, including video games.

"In recent years, there has been a growing trend toward portraying female characters as more aggressive, assertive, and combat-ready and this may have led players to associate these traits with female avatars."

Read the full paper The Proteus effect in Fallout: New Vegas: Investigating gender-conforming behaviours in videogames, published in Entertainment Computing.