Polygon has a short article up concerning the results of this recent Stanford study, which explores the “Proteus effect“: the phenomenon “wherein the behaviour of an individual operating under a digital persona, adapts to conform to that persona.”

Megan Farokhmanesh, writing at Polygon, notes that the study found (for example) that female participants who played video games using a sexualized avatar were more likely to self-objectify after doing so, and were also more likely to espouse “victim blaming” views about rape post-game. The researches tested these attitudes before and after gameplay, it would seem, so the correlation is that playing games with sexualized avatars influences the shift toward these opinions.

Which…isn’t really a surprising outcome. I mean, there’s been a ton of research and writing about how images in fashion magazines — or Barbie dolls, for that matter — can have a plethora of negative impacts on womens’ views (in terms of body image, for example). And if plastic dolls and glossy photographs can have negative impacts, it really can’t be said to be surprising that digital representations of women in video games also have related negative impacts.

Equally, it’s worth noting that for all the literature that has been published about these issues, magazines continue to be filled with images of skinny models, and Barbie is still…well…Barbie. There have been some changes, yes, but for the most part these things persist in an unaltered form. This suggests, in turn, that scantily-clad women won’t be disappearing from video games any time soon.

I have to confess, though, that this whole phenomenon strikes me as an odd thing. Maybe it’s because I grew up (as the site header tells) playing games like the Ultimas, King’s Quest, The Longest Journey, and more recently Mass Effect and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning…games which have either featured strong, more-or-less non-sexualized female protagonists (yeah, yeah, I know…), or which have treated male and female player-characters as being basically the same when it comes to attire and abilities (apart from the occasional incidence of “boob plate“).

That, and I just don’t see the appeal of this, this, this, this, or even this. (I was never the Tomb Raider fan in the house; my sisters played it.)

What’s the appeal of virtual lingerie and bouncing polygons, anyway? The real-life versions are substantially better…and the interactivity offered thereby doubly so.