Despite the rapidly increasing number of female gamers worldwide, female players are still experiencing discrimination, stereotyping, and objectification in digital games. The present study examined the relationships among gender stereotypes, sexism, and sexual harassment in online games, and further investigated how enhanced social presence contributes to intensifying the effects of gender stereotypes and sexism on sexual harassment. An online survey was conducted among 521 young male Korean gamers who regularly play two genres of online games: role-playing games and first-person shooter games. The results of moderated-mediation analyses using Hayes PROCESS macro models confirmed that gender stereotypes had significant effects on hostile and benevolent in-game sexism. A significant interaction was also observed between in-game sexism and social presence in predicting sexual harassment in online games. The findings from this study confirm the role of social presence as an amplifier that reinforces gender stereotypes and discrimination in competitive and violent online game environments.

中文翻译：

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社会存在在性别刻板印象、性别歧视和游戏内性骚扰之间的关系中的作用在年轻的韩国游戏玩家中。

尽管全球女性玩家数量迅速增加，但女性玩家在数字游戏中仍然遭受歧视、刻板印象和物化。本研究调查了网络游戏中性别刻板印象、性别歧视和性骚扰之间的关系，并进一步调查了增强的社会存在感如何有助于加强性别刻板印象和性别歧视对性骚扰的影响。对 521 名经常玩两种类型的在线游戏的年轻男性韩国游戏玩家进行了在线调查：角色扮演游戏和第一人称射击游戏。使用 Hayes PROCESS 宏模型进行的调节调解分析的结果证实，性别刻板印象对游戏中的敌对和仁慈的性别歧视有显着影响。在预测网络游戏中的性骚扰时，游戏中的性别歧视和社会存在之间也观察到显着的相互作用。这项研究的结果证实了社会存在作为放大器的作用，在竞争和暴力的在线游戏环境中加强了性别刻板印象和歧视。