Gender Differences in Ethical Stances for Playing AR Games: The Case of Pokémon GO

This study, presented at DiGRA 2023, examines whether men and women hold different ethical stances toward questionable behaviors in Pokémon GO, a location-based augmented reality game. Drawing on a survey of roughly 2,200 players, the authors assess perceptions of 25 ethically ambiguous actions, such as trespassing, spoofing location, and using third-party apps. The research is framed against Kohlberg's and Gilligan's contrasting accounts of gender and moral reasoning, and it addresses a gap in scholarship on location-based augmented reality games.

Men rated in-game actions as slightly more ethical than women overall, a difference with a small effect size, and significant gender gaps appeared in ten of the 25 specific actions, always in the same direction. Men also reported engaging in most questionable behaviors at higher rates, while women were more likely to visit businesses and cited social and stress-relief motivations more often. Gender differences proved more pronounced in actual conduct than in stated attitudes: men were more likely to have used third-party apps, whereas women more frequently limited their play for safety reasons, such as avoiding nighttime gym battles.

The authors attribute these patterns to a combination of game design rules, real-world social relationships, and gendered social expectations, including "playing to win" and "it's just a game" rationalizations consistent with moral disengagement. They argue that the differences reflect socially shaped norms rather than inherent variation in moral reasoning, though the gendered explanations they offer draw on prior literature and were not directly tested by the data. The study concludes by calling for intersectional research that moves beyond a binary gender framework.