Cyberbullying and its Consequences in Professional Gaming

Welcome friends, to episode #80 of Gaming Science.

I bet every gamer has experienced some form of cyberbullying while in-game. Anecdotally, we assume that cyberbullying must be even worse for professional gamers. But is that really the case? And if so, who are they bullied by, and what are the consequences?

💢 What the Scientific Literature Tells Us about Cyberbullying

"... cyberbullying is a prevalent issue in online videogames, including professional gaming... [1]"

This is particularly the case for women who represent nearly half of the people playing video games. Under this light, it is important to better understand cyberbullying of those who play professionally.

This issue is particularly significant for women, who represent nearly half of all video game players. Given this, it’s crucial to better understand the cyberbullying experiences of those who play professionally. But what exactly is cyberbullying?

"Across the literature, cyberbullying is defined as intentional, aggressive, and repeated acts towards someone who cannot defend themselves, carried out through the use of technology... [1]" This may include harassment, cyberstalking, exclusion, or direct threats.

In the literature, we can find lots of arguments supporting the following assumptions:

1. Professional players experience more cases of cyberbullying.
2. Women experience higher rates of sexual harassment and sexual pursuits compared to their male counterparts.
3. More experiences of cyberbullying and sexual harassment negatively impact professional players’ mental health.

👥 Who participated?

In total, 145 participants were surveyed from across 14 countries. 46.9% of them were women. To determine their level of professionality, criteria such as income from gaming, the number of followers/ and subscribers, contracts or sponsorships, participating in esports, and the primary reason for gaming (to make a living, no for a hobby or enjoyment).

📊 What are the results?

"[First and foremost,] almost all of the sample (95.9%) experienced cyberbullying in the last 12 months, suggesting that these toxic behaviours have a very high prevalence rate in videogaming [1]."

Surprisingly, 49.2% of participants reported experiencing cyberbullying from co-workers, such as teammates, coaches, or other professional players/streamers. Meanwhile, 50.9% mentioned viewers, fans, or followers as the primary source of bullying.

The level of professionalism in gaming was a significant (though weak-to-moderate) predictor of cyberbullying and sexual harassment. In other words, the more professional a gamer is (e.g., having followers, competing, making money), the higher the likelihood of being cyberbullied.

Interestingly, being more professional didn’t predict mental health outcomes such as well-being. However, being a woman increased the chances of being sexually harassed but did not increase the likelihood of experiencing cyberbullying.

"... both cyberbullying... and sexual harassment... were significant (strong and moderate effects, respectively) negative predictors of mental health outcomes... [1]"

🤔 What can We Learn from It?

"In essence, the more professional a game player becomes, the more they are exposed to hostile behaviours, and subsequently experience poor mental health outcomes (especially so for women) [1]."

Those main findings should really surprise anyone. Not because we "know" that women experience sexual harassment or cyberbullying is normal in the gaming space, but because the more people you are exposed to (being professional) the higher the chance of encountering negative individuals and their comments.

For me, the most striking finding was that "being a woman in gaming was not a predictor of cyberbullying... [1]" As the authors explained, one would expect women to be more likely targets of hostile behavior (cyberbullying) simply because of their gender. Contrary to expectations, gender was not the primary factor for experiencing cyberbullying—it was professionalism.

It's worth mentioning that, in a typical workspace, rules and governing bodies exist to prevent and deal with sexual harassment and (cyber-)bullying. However, these things do not exist in the gaming space.

Lastly, I would like to touch on an important limitation. In the study, cyberbullying may include things such as "hurtful comments", being ignored or not permitted access to items, other using their avatar to make sexual actions, gossiping, editing photos in a harmful way, threatening physical harm, or hacking. Although these can be interpreted negatively, some of them are "normal" in the gaming environment/culture (not saying it isn't, to a certain degree).

For instance, gossiping is part of everyday human activity, and editing photos in a harmful way is a) highly subjective (similar to "hurtful comments") and b) may include memes—arguably, a backbone of the gaming or even internet culture today.

Moreover, if you ever watched a Counter-Strike tournament with team in-game voice communication shown, on stream to millions of viewers, you will see that calling someone names or threatening physical harm happens almost every time. It's a vital part of team communication during stressful/competitive situations. Is this cyberbullying? No, it's firing up your team mates, being highly competitive, and "motivating" your team members by downplaying the enemy team.

Thanks for reading. Catch you all next week. Cheers,

Christian 🙂

References

[1] Trudgett-Klose, & McLinton, 2024
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