--- title: Men Who Attack Women Online Are Losers: Study description: Men who perform badly in games are more likely to harass female users canonical: https://time.com/3965630/men-attack-women-online-losers/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-21T12:09:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:52.292Z article:section: Science og:title: Men Who Attack Women Online Are Losers: Study og:description: Men who perform badly in games are more likely to harass female users og:url: https://time.com/3965630/men-attack-women-online-losers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96a756cee8ae33e5/69885bb0f887dc7ee6e9172e/gamer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5800 og:image:height: 3263 og:image:alt: Teenager playing video games og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Men Who Attack Women Online Are Losers: Study twitter:description: Men who perform badly in games are more likely to harass female users twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96a756cee8ae33e5/69885bb0f887dc7ee6e9172e/gamer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Study Finds That Men Who Attack Women Online Are, Literally, Losers > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: What to Know About Kids and Video Games [Watch (HLS stream): What to Know About Kids and Video Games](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/kFoAbgU1.m3u8) (1:44)  _Published 2015-07-07. Women in Video Games-v1_ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jul 21, 2015 12:09 PM UTC  Teenager playing video games at home Teenager playing video games at home Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jul 21, 2015 12:09 PM UTC A new study purports to show what we all could have guessed: Men who attack women online are [actual losers](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0131613). A pair of researchers examined interactions between players during 163 games of Halo 3 to determine when men were most likely to exhibit sexist, anti-social behavior toward their female peers. According to the study, which was recently published in the journal [PLOS One](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0131613), men who were worse players than their peers tended to hurl more nastiness at female gamers. On the other hand, men who knew their way around the console were nicer to male and female players. The researchers say the findings support an “evolutionary argument” that low-status men with low dominance have more to lose and are therefore more hostile to women who threaten their status in the social hierarchy. “As men often rely on aggression to maintain their dominant social status, the increase in hostility towards a woman by lower-status males may be an attempt to disregard a female’s performance and suppress her disturbance on the hierarchy to retain their social rank,” researchers write. The findings also support the growing body of anecdotal and research-based evidence that women face harsh blowback when they enter into and thrive in male-dominated corners of the Internet. As the Washington _Post_[ points out](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/07/20/men-who-harass-women-online-are-quite-literally-losers-new-study-finds/?tid=pm%5Fpop%5Fb), however, the study does not offer any solutions on how to solve the issue. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3965630/men-attack-women-online-losers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3965630/men-attack-women-online-losers/"},"headline":"Study Finds That Men Who Attack Women Online Are, Literally, Losers","datePublished":"2015-07-21T12:09:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:05:52.292Z","description":"Men who perform badly in games are more likely to harass female users","url":"https://time.com/3965630/men-attack-women-online-losers/","keywords":["Tech","feminism","Social Media","Technology","study","Research","Gaming","sexism"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96a756cee8ae33e5/69885bb0f887dc7ee6e9172e/gamer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96a756cee8ae33e5/69885bb0f887dc7ee6e9172e/gamer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Teenager playing video games","caption":"Teenager playing video games","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3965630/men-attack-women-online-losers/","name":"Study Finds That Men Who Attack Women Online Are, Literally, Losers"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"What to Know About Kids and Video Games","description":"Women in Video Games-v1","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/kFoAbgU1/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-07-07T20:33:35.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/kFoAbgU1.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3965630/men-attack-women-online-losers/","duration":"PT1M44S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3965630/men-attack-women-online-losers/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```