Gender bias in video game dialogue

Rennick, Stephanie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3524-8044, Clinton, Melanie, Ioannidou, Elena, Oh, Liana, Clooney, Charlotte, E., T., Healy, Edward and Roberts, Sean G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5990-9161 2023. Gender bias in video game dialogue. Royal Society Open Science 10 , 221095. 10.1098/rsos.221095

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Abstract

Gender biases in fictional dialogue are well documented in many media. In film, television, and books, female characters tend to talk less than male characters, talk to each other less than male characters talk to each other, and have a more limited range of things to say. Identifying these biases is an important step towards addressing them. However, there is a lack of solid data for video games, now one of the major mass media which has the ability to shape conceptions of gender and gender roles. We present the Video Game Dialogue Corpus, the first large-scale, consistently- coded corpus of video game dialogue, which makes it possible for the first time to measure and monitor gender representation in video game dialogue. It demonstrates that there is half as much dialogue from female characters as from male characters. Some of this is due to a lack of female characters, but there are also biases in who female characters speak to, and what they say. We make suggestions for how game developers can avoid these biases to make more inclusive games.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0441 Literary History
Publisher:	The Royal Society
ISSN:	2054-5703
Funders:	Swiss National Science Foundation
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	9 May 2023
Date of Acceptance:	4 May 2023
Last Modified:	08 Dec 2023 02:06
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/159317

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