Study with a hefty accusation
Is the game «Fifa» racist?
The video game series “Fifa” is the most successful sports game. A study now shows that prejudices are reproduced in the game.
Published: 19 minutes ago
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A study on “Fifa20” came to the conclusion that black players are confronted with the same stereotypes in the game as on the field. In the picture Kylian Mbappé, France international.
Researchers from the University of Coventry and Leicester have taken on an unusual research object: They examined the 2020 version of the game “Fifa” for racist clichés. They analyzed the 88 best-rated players from “Fifa”. In the game, each of the 17,000 players has a score that defines their skills in 29 different categories. Possible competencies are, for example, the aggressiveness of the player or the accuracy of the pass.
During the evaluation, the research team led by Paul Ian Campbell, sociology professor at the University of Leicester, found that black players were rated as physically stronger in most cases than white players. Campbell: “Our findings suggest that sports video games contribute to the emergence of persistent racist stereotypes in sports and in wider society.”
Among other things, the sprint speed, but also the physical strength of black players through the band were classified as better. On the other hand, when it came to technical or cognitive skills, such as accurate passing, White players scored higher on average.
Transfer prejudices from real life
Specifically, according to the researchers, this means that prejudices from the real world are transferred to digital players: Black players are strong and fast, but tactically and technically inferior. The authors of the study emphasize that TV sports commentators too often praise white footballers for their game intelligence and, in turn, often praise black footballers for their innate physical abilities – even when whites and blacks do the same thing on the field.
A spokesman for EA Sports denied the allegations against “The Conversation”: “If you take into account the position of the players, there is no correlation between skin color and skills in our game.” According to EA Sports, the player positions were not included in the evaluation. In addition, only a fraction of the players were analyzed by the researchers. The company states that it conducts regular training courses so that employees can recognize and eliminate prejudices. The spokesman goes on to say that racism has no place in the world of football or in EA Sports games.
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