The first research to write about is sexualizing female characters in video games. The study focused on women’s reactions and feelings about the perception of sexualized characters compared to non-sexualized ones. The investigation conductors assumed three hypotheses, and they all were not supported. The first was that women who played sexualized characters were supposed to report higher self-objectification. Those who played non-sexualized ones were supposed to report a lower rate of this variable. The second hypothesis was that personalization could increase the proposed effect (Skowronski et al., 2021). The third one was that playing a sexualized avatar would lower participants’ body satisfaction and change their perception of themselves. In addition, researchers decided to understand whether women’s pleasure from sexualization would make the positive effect of sexualizing and personalizing characters more moderate; the evidence to that was not found. However, the study has shown that “women who enjoyed sexualization reported more satisfaction from playing sexualized avatars both personalized and non-personalized” (Skowronski et al., 2021). Although the experiment has shown no correlation between the sexualization of female characters and women’s perception of their bodies and self-objectification, scientists assume that the effect may appear due to the long-term playing of such avatars. Furthermore, there is an assumption that sexualized characters’ interaction with others in video games could lead to a different study outcome.
Psychologists decided to test whether observing the impact of plays in a theater on the level of people’s empathy. The survey has shown that participants reported a more significant level of empathy after the shows for groups depicted there. Furthermore, they expressed more consistently about social and political issues; plays evoked a desire to donate money to charities both related and unrelated to the play (Rathje et al., 2021). The surveys were conducted after people watched such plays as “Skeleton Crew,” “Sweat,” and “Wolf Play.” The first one is about Detroit auto workers’ lives after the crisis in 2008. The second one addresses the poor lives of people in Reading, Pennsylvania. The last one is about high values and families people can and cannot choose. This study contributed to art; it showed how plays and natural actors’ expressions of their feeling are essential for the level of people’s empathy and the general population’s wellbeing. However, the research has a drawback: it is unknown to what extent life plays increase the level of compassion and how long the effect will last. Furthermore, the “live” component is crucial here: reading fiction and watching a movie may not evoke the same level of empathy.
The last research to discuss is racism as a habit that can be broken. The conductors assumed that developing a “multi-faceted prejudice habit-breaking intervention” would decrease the level of prejudice in the experiment’s participants (Devine et al., 2012). Their assumption appeared to be correct: the group under the influence of that development showed a dramatic reduction in racism. It also made people concerned about fairness, stereotypes, and their impact on people. The first goal was to explain and educate people about the existence of discrimination, to show them the actual situation. Participants were given a list of five everyday strategies to fight against discrimination. During the task, participants were deciding where, when, and in what situations they could implement this knowledge. In conclusion, the results have shown that prejudice can be overcome with the right approach. Furthermore, there are assumptions that such a strategy may also work with any other type of stereotypes and may help in the future millions of people.
References
Devine, P., Forscher, P., Austin, A., Cox, W. (2012). Long-term reduction in implicit race bias: A prejudice habit-breaking intervention. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(6), 1267-1278
Rathje, S., Hackel, L., Zaki, J. (2021). Attending live theatre improves empathy, changes attitudes, and leads to pro-social behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 95, 1-10
Skowronski, M., Busching, R., Krahé, B. (2021). The effects of sexualized video game characters and character personalization on women’s self-objectification and body satisfaction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 92, 1-10