Conquering Gender Stereotype Threat in “Digit Sports”: Effects of Gender Swapping on Female Players' Continuous Participation Intention in Esports

Hindawi Scientific Programming Volume 2020, Article ID 8818588, 7 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8818588 Research Article Conquering Gender Stereotype Threat in “Digit Sports”: Effects of Gender Swapping on Female Players’ Continuous Participation Intention in ESports Lujie Hao,1,2 Qinghua Lv,1 Xiaosan Zhang ,3 Qingquan Jiang ,4 Songxian Liu,4 and Lin Ping5 1School of Business, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou 362021, China 2Economics and Business Administration Institute, Fuzhou University of Foreign Studies and Trade, Fuzhou 350202, China 3Research Centre for Belt & Road Financial and Economic Development, Xiamen National Accounting Institute, Xiamen 361005, China 4School of Economics & Management, Xiamen University of Technology, Xiamen 361024, China 5Chinese Entrepreneurship Research Center, Minjiang University, Fuzhou 350108, China Correspondence should be addressed to Xiaosan Zhang; [email protected] and Qingquan Jiang; [email protected] Received 14 April 2020; Revised 30 May 2020; Accepted 16 June 2020; Published 6 July 2020 Academic Editor: Chenxi Huang Copyright © 2020 Lujie Hao et al. .is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. As a sportification form of human-computer interaction, eSports is facing great gender stereotype threat and causing female players’ withdraw. .is study aims to investigate the relationship between gender-swapping and females’ continuous participation intention in eSports, the mediating effect of self-efficacy, and the moderating effect of discrimination. .e results demonstrate (1) that the effect of gender-swapping on continuous participation intention in eSports was not significant, while gender-swapping had a significant association with self-efficacy, and self-efficacy had a significant association with continuous participation intention in eSports; (2) that gender-swapping had an indirect effect (via self-efficacy) on continuous participation intention in eSports; and (3) that discrimination moderated the effect of self-efficacy on continuous participation intention. Female players who had experienced discrimination displayed higher continuous participation intention in the context of self-efficacy enhanced by gender-swapping. 1. Introduction more protection [8], and hypersexualized female avatars make male players associate female players with sex, and this ESports is a typical sportification form [1] of human- has a negative impact [9]. Furthermore, discrimination computer interaction [2, 3]. Similar to traditional sport, causes female players to experience greater oppression in the gender stereotype threat exists in eSports and causes a game [5], forcing them to withdraw from eSports. significant gender imbalance in the eSports industry. Taking It would seem that gender stereotypes threat discourages Chinese eSports as an example, female participants account female participation in eSports. .erefore, female players for only 24.3% [4]. Although emerging mobile eSports at- sometimes attempt to dispel gender stereotypes by gender- tract more and more female participants, eSports are still swapping [10–12]. A few initial studies have found that typically male-dominated and are full of negative stereotypes gender-swapping impacts females’ gaming psychology and of females, such as that male players are more competent [5]. experience [13], including both online and offline behaviors .erefore, female players often receive less positive com- [10]. However, the relationship between gender-swapping ments [6] and experience discrimination in eSports [7]. and females’ continuous participation intention in eSports is Females are considered to have a lower skill level and require little discussed. 2 Scientific Programming .e present study aimed to explore the relationship gender also affects players’ behavior and cognition: Peña between gender-swapping, self-efficacy, and females’ con- et al. found that when randomly assigned to a female avatar, tinuous participation intention in eSports in a sample of both male and female participants showed a feminine Chinese female college students. A moderated mediation communication paradigm (e.g., emotional and often apol- model was tested, in which self-efficacy mediated the rela- ogized) [26]. Lehdonvirta et al. confirmed that male players tionship between gender-swapping and continuous partic- assigned to male avatars are less help-seeking than those ipation intention in eSports, and discrimination moderated with female avatars [27]. One study [10] reported that fe- the relationship between gender-swapping and self-efficacy males who manipulated male avatars were more likely to and the mediation effect of self-efficacy. display male behaviors. .ese conclusions indicate that players tend to exhibit a behavior consistent with the avatar’s gender stereotype. For eSports games, male avatars generally 1.1. Relationship between Gender-Swapping and Continuous have aggressive attributes and female avatars often have Participation Intention in ESports. Online gaming permits auxiliary attributes, thus creating the stereotype that male players to mask their actual gender, and players can create an avatars are stronger than female avatars. .erefore, when identity opposite to their actual gender through gender- females control male avatars, they behave in a manner swapping. Gender-swapping is common among players [14]. consistent with the stereotypes of male avatars. .rough Griffiths et al. conducted a survey of 8694 players and found gender-swapping, they are classified as nonstereotype target that 10% of women had utilized gender-swapping during the groups and improve their performance by the stereotype lift game [11]. In Hussain and Griffiths’ survey, the gender- effect. Lee et al. demonstrated that regardless of participants’ swapping ratio was as high as 68% [12]. According to Fox gender, when assigned to female avatars, their mathematics and Tang , females may try to avoid gender discrimination test scores were lower than the scores of those who were by gender-swapping [15]. In this way, gender-swapping has assigned to male avatars, confirming that an avatar’s gender become a way of making gaming fair for female players [12]. influences a participant’s performance [28]. Similarly, in a Royse et al. found that a female’s psychological experience study in which all participants were female, those who were changes when they control male avatars [13]. In addition, assigned to male avatars gained better scores than those with gender-swapping changes the offline behavior of female female avatars, further confirming that female players dis- players. Huh and Williams found that female players who play a better performance when engaged in gender-swap- conduct long-term gender-swapping display more mascu- ping [29]. Kaye and Pennington found that when associated line behaviors [10]. with a nonstigmatized gaming identity, females’ perfor- Although more and more females are participating in mance deficits may be mitigated [17]. Royse et al. argued that eSports, the title of “gamer” is considered to be exclusive to female players have a superior feeling when gender-swap- males [16]. For females, eSports is rife with stereotype ping [13], indicating that female players construct a game threat [17, 18] and discrimination [19, 20]. Shen et al. found identity through gender-swapping which enhances their that although female players have enough game skills, some game self-efficacy. still feel that their ability is inferior to that of males of the Social cognitive theory emphasizes the influence of self- same level [21], which caused dearth of female players in efficacy on an individual’s behavior and tendencies, sug- this eSports community [22]. .is lack of confidence comes gesting that people like to engage in things that they are from stereotypes of female players [23]. Perceiving negative more capable at, which means that if an individual is more gender stereotypes decreases female players’ performance self-effective about accomplishing the task, he/she will have a [17] and excludes them from the mainstream eSports circle greater intention to participate. In the field of information [24], which weakens their participation intention in systems, Tsai et al. found that self-efficacy affected a user’s eSports; in other words, the higher the females’ awareness intention of using technology [30]. In the gaming field, of the threat of gender stereotypes, the more likely they are players’ judgment of self-ability has been shown to affect to quit eSports. Removing this gender stereotype threat will their decision to continue playing games. If players consider play an important role in enhancing female participation in that they can gain game skills easily, they tend to have a eSports; gender-swapping plays a role in “gender masking” strong continuous intention; otherwise, they quit playing and allows female players to escape stereotype threats [31]. On the other hand, when encountering a strong ad- which can enhance females’ continuous participation in- versary or difficult situations, players with a high self-efficacy tention in eSports. .us, we propose the following who keep fighting and gain skill or level promotions also hypotheses. experience a sense of accomplishment [32]. .ese positive experiences result in a higher gaming frequency and a Hypothesis 1. Gender-swapping is positively associated with continuous intention to play [33]. .erefore, female players’ females’

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