How Gendered Character and Perceived Expertise Trigger the Gender Stereotype in CMC: Take the PUBG Mobile as an Example

To investigate the effects of gendered characters and gaming skills on sex inference and teammate choice in PUBG Mobile, a 2 (actual sex: man vs. woman) x2 (gaming skill level: high vs. low) x2 (gendered character: male character vs. female character) between-subject experiment was conducted (N = 248). As hypothesized, the choice of characters was influenced by the participants' level of gaming skills. Those with high gaming skills were more inclined to select characters of the opposite gender, while those with low gaming skills were more likely to choose characters of their own gender. In addition, the effect of gaming skill cues, such as past game records, was more significant than the effect of gendered character cues. Players with high gaming skills were perceived as males, regardless of the gender of their chosen characters, while players with low gaming skills were considered females. Thus, female players with high gaming skills preferred to select male characters to represent themselves, but they did not believe that players with good records could be females. And the consideration of “expertise” influenced the selection of teammates. Findings are discussed in light of the Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE) and the stereotypes-as-explanations account.