Most Online World Users Swap Gender
A new study out of Nottingham Trent University found that most users of online games where they could use a character of any race or gender took advantage of the flexibility: Up to 70% of women reported swapping genders and 54% of men said the same. "It seems that women gender swap for a variety of reasons, such as to avoid unsolicited male approaches on their female characters, or because they felt male characters were treated better by other males during the course of the game," Zaheer Hussain, who co-authored the study, told The Guardian. Men swapped to flirt and swap different aspects of their personalities. [UPDATE: The study isn't quite as strong as we thought.]
It seems like much of the swapping is done out of a sense of escapism or ease of socializing in the virtual world. 40% of respondents reported using online worlds to leave behind troubling daily lives at home or work and 20% said they found it easier to interact online.
"In our offline lives, there are set boundaries and limits – but these synthetic worlds allow people to explore aspects of their personalities that they couldn't otherwise do," said co-author Professor Mark Griffiths, of the university's International Gambling Research Unit.
The study, "Gender Swapping and Socialising in Cyberspace," is now available in the journal of CyberPsychology and Behavior.
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