Mange gange er historier dukket op, der viser at generel adfærd på PlayStation Network, Xbox Live og diverse PC-baserede spiltjenester kan være et hårdt sted at færdes, og nogle har sågar valgt at undersøge denne adfærd nærmere for at finde ind til kernen af problemet. Én ny undersøgelse har gjort dette, og mener at dele af problemet ligger hos mandlige spillere, der angiveligvis udviser "teknomaskulinitet".
Undersøgelsen, ved navn "Technomasculinity and Its Production in Video Games" er udarbejdet af University of Idaho i USA, hvor forsker Robin Johnson argumenterer for at mænd ubevidst udviser denne adfærd. Undersøgelsen er udarbejdet i samarbejde med 20 spiludviklere.
Johnson beskriver "teknomaskulinitet" som "an expression of masculinity that is oriented toward the mastery of technology and skilled use of technological tools and systems."
Johnson forklarer desuden, at selvom dette sker ubevidst, så har det en stor effekt på eksempelvis arbejdsmarkedet.
"Gender is socially organized in the West in a hierarchized binary differentiating men and women along supposedly natural or biological masculine and feminine traits. The association between technology, masculinity, and what we think of as skilled work is still fundamental to the gendered division of labor," and thus, the oppression of women and the gender pay gap." Any man who likes video games, plays video games, or develops video games is at risk of perpetuating technomasculnity — which, like all other forms of masculinity — allegedly hurt women by its mere existence. If you take gender away from the equation, there is nothing wrong with being able to demonstrate technical mastery. But as a form of masculinity it tends to exclude women from being seen as legitimate technically skilled individuals. Because being technically skilled is seen as masculine, you end up with the following associations: men = masculine = technically skilled, while women women = feminine = not technically skilled... that is a negative consequence."