Monday, December 7, 2015 11:30 am
-
11:30 am
EST (GMT -05:00)
Dan
Brown
(School
of
Computer
Science)
and
Cecilia
Cotton
(Statistics
and
Actuarial
Science)
December
7,
2015
11:30
a.m.
DC
2568
Abstract:
A
recent
paper
on
sexist
behaviour
in
video
games
was
widely
reported
in
the
media
as
showing
that
men
who
play
poorly
are
more
obnoxious
to
female
players,
though
that
was
not
the
major
finding
of
the
actual
paper.
Instead,
the
paper
claimed
to
show
that
high-skilled
male
players
are
more
supportive
to
female
teammates
than
they
are
to
male
teammates.
The
data
were
comments
made
during
recorded
first-person
shooter
games.
Using
an
evolutionary
psychology
lens,
the
authors
suggested
that
these
high-skill
males
responded
positively
to
their
female
teammates
in
manners
consistent
with
finding
a
mate.
We
re-examined
the
paper,
and
identified
several
problems
with
both
data
generation
and
analysis.
The
statistical
model
used
by
the
authors
did
not
adequately
account
for
the
large
variation
in
the
number
of
positive
comments
made
to
a
teammate.
None
of
the
gender-based
major
conclusions
of
the
study
are
statistically
significant
when
analyzed
properly.
Additionally,
there
are
major
concerns
about
how
the
data
were
generated
(including
ethical
concerns
around
analysis
of
people’s
online
behaviour),
and
about
the
generalizability
of
the
results
of
the
paper,
were
they
significant
in
the
first
place.
We
also
discuss
our
work
on
attempting
to
get
the
publishing
journal
to
respond
to
our
critiques,
which
has
so
far
been
largely
unsuccessful.
Biographies:
Dan
Brown
is
Associate
Professor
of
Computer
Science
at
the
University
of
Waterloo,
where
he
has
been
a
faculty
member
since
2000.
His
primary
research
interests
are
in
bioinformatics
and
music
information
retrieval.
He
doesn’t
play
first-person
shooters,
but
does
play
other
video
games.
Cecilia
Cotton
is
Associate
Professor
of
Statistics
at
the
University
of
Waterloo,
where
she
has
been
a
faculty
member
since
2009.
Her
primary
research
interests
are
biostatistics,
causal
inference,
and
longitudinal
data.
About
the Gender
and
Equity
Scholarship
series:
The Gender and Equity Scholarship series is co-ordinated by the University of Waterloo Faculty Association Status of Women and Equity Committee and intends to assist not only with the promotion of gender and equity research currently being conducted at the University of Waterloo, but also with the creation of networking opportunities for equity minded faculty on campus.