Men Exhibit an Attentional Bias for Injured and Sexualized Female Imagery After Playing a Female Opponent in a Violent Video Game: An Eye Movement Experiment

Exposure to sexualized women within violent video games has been experimentally linked to subsequent hostile sexism and sexual assault attitudes. The present study aimed to examine the potential role of visual attention as a marker for such socio-cognitive effects. We randomly assigned 161 male and female participants to play a violent or nonviolent game against male and/or female opponents and then measured their subsequent gaze behavior towards images of injured, sexualized and injured/sexualized women in a preferential image task. Men who played a female opponent in a violent game showed visual preferences towards injured, sexualized and injured/sexualized images of women, when compared to men who played a female opponent in a nonviolent game. However, pre-experimental self-reported rape myth acceptance attitudes did not correlate with gaze behavior or prior video game play. These findings suggest that certain video game content is capable of priming preferential gaze behavior towards images of injured and sexualized women. Furthermore, evidence of sustained attention towards women with injuries following violent video game play was suggestive of a desensitization effect. This experiment is the first to demonstrate that exposure to sexualized female characters in violent games influences subsequent gaze behavior towards injured and sexualized women.