Women & PreMeds are White Mages (Healers) 🎮

The Healer/White Mage role is most preferred by women & least preferred by men

The Nurturers of Distant Worlds

White Mages are the primary healers of MMORPGs & RPGs. Whenever you’re 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, it’s generally assumed that women are more likely to select a White Mage role for their avatars than men.

Warriors (which are generally tanks in MMORPG) are the primary bullet sponges. They’re the ones who draw the attention of major bosses, take most of the damage & (usually) deal significant damage, all while the other gamers (rangers/hunters & battle mages) attack the enemy(ies) from behind. As such, it’s generally assumed that men are more likely to select a Warrior role for their avatars than women.

A chi-square independence analysis found support for this prediction in the current study (see Figure 1).

Results

Women indicated a preference to play a White Mage (healers; 37.4%) & had the least interest in the warriors/tank role (close — physical; 15.5%), whereas men indicated a preference to play as warriors (33.6%) and had the least interest in the healer role (18.4%), χ2(3, N = 312) = 22.27, p = .001.

— Women prefer being healers most & warriors/tanks least
— Men prefer being warriors/tanks most & healers least

Figure 1

Pre-Med Students

I also predicted that PreMed students may be more likely to play a White Mage role than gamers who weren’t PreMeds. A chi-square independence analysis found support for this prediction (see Figure 2).

PreMed gamers (44.9%) were significantly more likely to indicate playing a White Mage (Healer) role than their non-PreMed classmates (30.5%), χ2 (1, N = 387) = 7.52, p = .006.

Figure 2

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Sidenotes (assume direct quotes)

Obama, Barack. A Promised Land (p. 633). Crown. Kindle Edition.

“Opportunities for women and girls across the globe directly supports everyone’s security and prosperity” (p. 569).

“…the value of harnessing new technologies in the developing world, a 10% increase in the penetration rate for mobile phones in a developing country can lead to an increase in GDP per capita of between .6 & 1.2%. That translates to billions of dollars and countless jobs.”

Weaponized Incompetence

(5.3.2020 Lab Email)

Where husbands will intentionally do a task incorrectly to
1☆ avoid being ‘promoted’ to an additional task and/or
2☆ reduce the likelihood of being asked to do the current task again in the future.

“What do you mean I wasn’t supposed to put the diaper in the dishwasher? Oh well, I guess that means I’m just not cut out to ever change Ken’s diaper again during football games. What do you mean our baby’s name isn’t Ken? We have a daughter named McKenna? How long have you known this honey? I think it’s almost MacKenna’s birthday. What do you mean you’re going to stay with your sister? I thought you were an only child. Wait, wait, the 3rd quarter is starting — back in a bit.”

Men are more egalitarian in their childcare tasks than in household chores (Arsenault, 2018; Bianchi et al., 2012). Childcare tasks can’t wait until later or be avoided, whereas household tasks (e.g., laundry, turning on the dishwasher) can be ignored until tomorrow.

Female Exogamy & Patrilocal Marriage

‘The available molecular genetic evidence suggests that our ancestors likely practiced female exogamy (Seielstad et al., 1998).

When girls reached puberty, they left their natal groups to marry into neighboring groups to avoid inbreeding, while boys stayed in their natal groups their entire lives. So all men in a hunter–gatherer band were genetically related whereas women were not (Geary et al., 2003).’

The older the father is when having a child the higher the likelihood his offspring will have genetic mutations, the lower the likelihood they’ll reproduce, and the shorter their lifespan (Arslan et al., 2017; Kong et al., 2012; Pauline Vuarin et al., 2020).

High paternal age increases “offspring risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism (Kong et al., 2012) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (D’Onofrio et al., 2014), and also lower physical attractiveness (Huber & Fieder, 2014; Woodley of Menie and Kanazawa, 2017)” (Michael Anthony Woodley of Menie, Yr. et al., 2017).

‘Single fathers were twice as likely to report poor self-rated health and mental health as single mothers, but were only half as likely to access health services’ (Chiu et al., 2018, 115).”

Most White-minority opposite-sex couples with kids have a non-White father. Thus, the ratio of child socialization in adolescence may be more egalitarian as those minority fathers will be motivated to prepare their offspring for their adult life as phenotypic minorities.