Women & Extraverts Are Healers in MMORPGs đź
Women & extraverts are most likely the gamers reviving you; though, surprisingly, not Pre-Meds
The Nurturers of Distant Worlds
White Mages are the primary healers of MMORPGs & RPGs. Whenever youâre in a difficult dungeon, facing challenging bosses, or just doing some quests with a group in general, White Mages are there to heal, revive, & support you. As such, itâs generally assumed that women are more likely to select a White Mage role for their avatars than men.
Investigations into the validity of this prediction have only provided partial merit: some confirm it for certain videogames whereas others find no difference for other videogames (of note, no investigations find that men are more likely to play White Mages than women). Chi-square Goodness of Fit analyses found support for this prediction in the current study:
Women indicated a preference to play a White Mage role over warriors/tanks, hunter/ranger (distance â physical), & red, blue, and black mage (distance â magic) roles, Ï2(3, N = 34) = 9.06, p = .029.
No role preference was found for men.
Are PreMeds Healers?
In truth, I wasnât interested in assessing sex differences in role preferences when planning this study. I simply wanted to know if PreMed gamers preferred the White Mage role (consistent with MD aspirations) more than non-PreMed students.
Contrary to predictions, PreMeds were not significantly more likely to be White Mages/ Healers.
Healers: Introverts & Extroverts
White Mages (Healers) advance in MMORPGs by healing others, making it an inherently social role. As such, Extroverted students (87.5%) were significantly more likely to be White Mages than Introverts (32%) & Ambiverts (35.3%), Ï2 (2, N = 50) = 8.14, p = .017.
Finally, men (71.4%) were marginally more likely to be gamers than women (44.1%), p = .085.
Femininity & Healing
âIn practically all realms of foreign & domestic policy, women are less belligerent than menâ (Page & Shapiro 1992, p. 295).
It is increasingly acknowledged that the inclusion of women in peace negotiations make them more likely to become agreements & more durable over time (Addams, 2021; Buranajaroenkij, 2020; Chrystia Freeland, 2017; DesirĂ©e Nilsson, 2012; Julianne Windham, 2019 ; Krause et al., 2018; Nazary et al., 2020; OâReilly et al., 2015; Pelham et al., 2021; Thania Paffenholz et al., 2016).
An unpublished study by Laurel Stone (2015) found that, of 182 peace agreements signed between 1989 & 2011, the oneâs that included women enjoyed greater success (Stone, 2015). When women are part of peace negotiations, agreements are 20% more likely to last at least 2 years & 35% more likely to last 15 years (Laurel Stone, 2015).
An archival study by Paffenholz (2015) successfully replicated Stoneâs (2015) finding by demonstrating that 40 political and peace negotiations from 1989 to 2014 had more success when women were involved.
Of 24 women leaders from 1960â1994, only 4 of them (16.67%) were involved in international crises at any point during their reign & âas the percent of women in a legislature increases by 5%, a state is nearly 5x (4.86) less likely to use violenceâ (Caprioli & Boyer, 2001, p. 514).
SoCal Lab UCSD â â In an ongoing reanalysis & partial replication of Caprioli & Boyerâs (2001) study, we found that female leaders from 1960-the 2010s were less likely to be involved in international crises during their reigns.
Masculinity & Mortality Risk
Elisabeth Buchwald (June 28, 2020): Men are less likely to believe theyâll be seriously impacted by COVID-19, one study shows. Unlike women, theyâre more likely to see wearing face coverings as âa sign of weakness.â
Among those with COVID19 infections, being a male predicts a more severe infection (Merzon et al., 2021).
Socialization is the process of acquiring, encoding, and expressing the norms, values, and attitudes of particular groups (Jones & Gerard, 1967). Affective socialization in childhood is driven primarily by parents, either via direct instruction of emotion regulation or kidsâ modeling and imitation of their parentsâ affective displays (Cassano et al., 2007; Duncombe et al., 2012; Levine & Munsch, 2018; Lunkenheimer et al., 2007; Macklem, 2008; Morris et al., 2007; Zeman et al., 2006).
Seeking Care
Decades of research have documented how and why men are less likely to seek care. A 2019 study in the American Journal of Menâs Health, for example, examined health care use in religious heterosexual men and concluded masculine norms â such as a perception that they are supposed to be tough â were the main reason many men avoided seeking care.
Jennifer Tolbert et al., 2020: šWorking-age men have higher uninsured rates compared with women in over half of all U.S. counties (1662 out of 3141 counties) as of 2016.
Bicycles
Males have more bicycle accidents than females, a pattern known for decades (Amoros et al., 2011; Boufous et al., 2011; Briem, 2003; Carlin et al., 1995; Carlin et al., 1998; Colwell & Culverwell, 2002; Frings et al., 2012; Hagel et al., 2015; Hansen et al., 2005; Knowles et al., 2009; Li et al., 1995; Macpherson et al., 2004; Martin et al., 2004; ONISR, 2017; Tallet & Valles, 2017; Wang et al., 2009; Yu et al., 2012).
Walking
Men walk faster than women (Abadi et al., 2010; Abustan, 2015; Alexandra Willis et al., 2004; Asher et al., 2012; Boles, 1981; Chandra & Bharti, 2013; Chung & Wang, 2010; Finnis & Walton, 2007; Khalidur Rahman et al., 2012; Knoblauch et al, 1996; Lowry et al., 2016; Mohd Firdaus Mohamad Ali et al., 2019; Morrall et al., 1991; Mukherjee et al., 2020; Nazir et al., 2014; Pinna & Murrau, 2018; Polus et al.,1983; Tanaboriboon and Guyano, 1991; Tarawneh, 2001).
Medical records indicate that schoolaged boys have 1.94x the risk of injury from walking as girls due to boys engaging âin more hazardous walking-related safety behaviorsâ (Jie Yu et al., 2012).
Costa (2010)
Close intimate distances are more frequently observed in female dyads than in male dyads (Aiello 1987; Crawford and Unger 2000; Hall 1984; Heshka and Nelson 1972). This finding may reflect a stronger female socialization to be affiliative, and more experience by females with intimate nonverbal modalities (Crawford and Unger 2000; Hall 1984).
People interact at closer distances with increasing friendship (e.g., Holmes 1992), which suggests that closer personal space is an outcome of increased attraction. People interacting at closer distances are judged by observers to have a closer interpersonal relationship than individuals who interact at greater distances (Wellens and Goldberg 1978). Dominance, power, and status differences tend to lead to lower interpersonal distances (Hall et al. 2005).
Finnis & Dalton (2007)
âMale groups walked more ââscatteredââ than female or mixed groups while walking. This mirrors the effect of gender on interpersonal distances that has been confirmed by many researchers (Aiello 1987; Barnard and Bell 1997; Hall 1984). This finding may reflect a stronger female socialization to be affiliative, and more experience by females with intimate nonverbal modalities (Crawford and Unger 2000; DePaulo and Friedman 1998), and a greater male concern for avoiding intimacy with others of the same sex (Berscheid and Reis 1998; Maccoby 1990). This result can also be interpreted as a consequence of the greater hierarchy in all-male groups (Hall et al. 2005; Schmid Mast 2002), since interpersonal distances and positioning are also strongly influenced by dominance and status exhibition.
This gender difference disappeared in groups of 4+, where interpersonal distances between males and females were more homogeneous. Thus, the larger the group, the less pressure males felt to keep appropriate distances from other males. (Perhaps, in order not to be considered as homosexual.)
Closer distances, for example, are maintained between individuals of similar rather than dissimilar age (Willis 1966), sex (Kaya and Erkip 1999), race or subculture (Aiello 1987), religion (Balogun 1991), sexual preference (Barrios et al. 1976), and status (Lott and Sommer 1967). Along the same line, Caplan and Goldman (1981) reported that taller people tend to maintain a larger personal space, and that in case of violation of personal space, people prefer to intrude in short peopleâs space than tall peopleâs personal space. Hartnett et al. (1974) has also found that people tend to approach a tall person at a greater distance than when approaching a short person. In mixed dyads, the male person tended to be positioned a little forward while walking, a behavior that can be interpreted as a sign of dominance.â
Sidenotes.
Mediums of Morality đșđ (Mares et al., 2021)
Likable LGBTQ characters can improve attitudes toward marginalized gender and sexual identities (e.g., Bond, 2020; Bond & Compton, 2015; Calzo & Ward, 2009; Gillig, Rosenthal, Murphy, & Folb, 2018).
Marie-Louise Mares et al. (2021) examined LGBTQ teensâ agentic use of media to socialize their parents and, in the framework of social relational theory, teensâ perceptions of their parentsâ responses and support. Given the increased visibility of LGBTQ regular characters on broadcast networks, cable, and streaming services (GLAAD, 2020), the media environment has opened the door for LGBTQ teens to use media content to educate their parents, elicit parental support, and spark identity-related conversations. Malici (2014) suggested such possibilities in writing about âqueer TV momentsâ in which LGBTQ viewers encounter relevant characters or storylines while co-viewing with heterosexual, cisgender family and friends. He argued that such moments may âpromote reciprocal understanding, easing conflictsâ (p. 206), though his presentation of survey data (mostly from heterosexual respondents) included only two instances. Relatedly, Ghosh (2020) suggested that positive LGBTQ depictions may facilitate family relationships after the child comes out, a premise reinforced by findings that 75% of LGBTQ adults in an international survey believed that entertainment media depictions of LGBTQ characters improved their familiesâ understanding of the LGBTQ community (GLAAD, 2020).
Teens reported that parental exposure to LGBTQ characters elicited family conversations about their sexual identities (Trussell, Xing, & Oswald, 2015).
Results
Of the 257 teens who described a specific instance of mediation or media-inspired discussion, 28% (n = 71) said it occurred before they fully realized their identity, 35% (n = 91) while they were thinking of coming out to their parent, 17% (n = 44) while they were coming out to their parent, and 21% (n = 55) after they first came out to their parent. Thus, LGBTQ-media-related behaviors occurred across various stages of coming out.
Of the 368 teens who described a specific instance of co-viewing, mediation, or media-inspired discussion, 28% (n = 104) said it occurred before they fully realized their identity, 30% (n = 109) while they were thinking of coming out to their parent, 11% (n = 40) while they were coming out to their parent, and 31% (n = 115) after they first came out to their parent. (One participant did not respond to these prompts.) Thus, as in Study 1, LGBTQ-media-related behaviors occurred across various stages of coming out.
Lesbians & Biological Motherhood
âMotherhood experiences were characterized by resilience and vulnerability in parenting their children without legal parental rights and within a heteronormative society that privileged biological motherhood. The dynamic relationship between seeking connection and seeking legitimacy that is at the heart of the participantsâ experiences of motherhood is highlighted. Participants encountered challenges to their maternal legitimacy within their families and communities and in their interactions with legal and social institutions. Participants described using various strategies to reinforce their parental identity. Despite the challenges, participants were engaged in constructing satisfying parenting roles. The findings highlight the importance of legitimizing the parental identity of non-birth mothers. Therapists should be sensitive to the additional marginalization of non-birth mothers in same-sex parent families. Validating their vulnerability and their resilience in the face of obstacles may enhance their coping resources.â