Skip to main content

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Media Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1410620
This article is part of the Research Topic Extremism and Games View all articles

Taking it to the extreme: Prevalence and nature of extremist sentiment in games

Provisionally accepted
Rachel Kowert Rachel Kowert 1*Elizabeth Kilmer Elizabeth Kilmer 1Alex Newhouse Alex Newhouse 2
  • 1 Take This, Seattle, United States
  • 2 Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    More than half of all game players report experiencing some form of hate, harassment or abuse within gaming spaces. While prevalence assessments of these actions in digital gaming spaces are ongoing, little remains known about the more extreme forms of these behaviors. Specifically, experiences of extremism. This paper addresses the gap in research knowledge around the expression of extremist sentiment in games by evaluating their prevalence, location, and nature, and impact. Assessing experiences via an online survey, game players (n = 423) reported an alarmingly high rate of frequency for being the direct target of, as well as a witness to, all forms of extremist content. Most of these experiences were text-based, reported to be happening ingame. Most players endorsed statements relating to a normalization of extreme ideologies within gaming cultures. It is promising that reporting these behaviors was the primary action taken by players for most of the players; however, "ignoring" these actions was also a common strategy. It is possible that player inaction reflects the embeddedness and normalization of these actions in gaming spaces and/or a lack of trust in moderation systems to be responsive. The prevalence of extreme sentiment in gaming cultures should raise concern from game makers, members of the gaming community, parents, and policy makers alike.

    Keywords: Video Games, extremism, Terrorism, Gaming, Trust and safety

    Received: 01 Apr 2024; Accepted: 29 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kowert, Kilmer and Newhouse. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Rachel Kowert, Take This, Seattle, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.