Research suggests there is a perception that females and underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities have worse gameplay skills and produce less engaging video game streaming content. This bias might impact streamers' audience size, viewers' financial patronage of a streamer, streamers' sponsorship offers, etc. However, few studies on this topic use experimental methods. To fill this gap, we conducted a between-subjects survey experiment to examine if viewers are biased against video game streamers based on the streamer's gender or race/ethnicity. 200 survey participants rated the gameplay skill and viewer engagement of an identical gameplay recording. The only change between experimental conditions was the streamer's name who purportedly created the recording. The Dunnett's test found no statistically significant differences in viewer engagement ratings when comparing White male streamers to either White female (p = 0.37), Latino male (p = 0.66), or Asian male (p = 0.09) streamers. Similarly, there were no statistically significant differences in gameplay skill ratings when comparing White male streamers to either White female (p = 0.10), Latino male (p = 1.00), or Asian male (p = 0.59) streamers. Potential contributors to statistically non-significant results and counter-intuitive results (i.e., White females received non-significantly higher ratings than White males) are discussed.

翻译：研究表明，人们普遍认为女性和少数种族/民族群体的游戏技能较差，且制作的游戏直播内容吸引力不足。这种偏见可能影响主播的观众规模、观众的付费支持以及商业赞助机会等。然而，该领域采用实验方法进行的研究较为有限。为填补这一空白，我们开展了一项受试者间问卷调查实验，检验观众是否基于主播的性别或种族/民族产生偏见。200名调查参与者对同一段游戏录像中的主播技能和观众参与度进行了评分。实验变量仅为主播姓名（宣称制作该录像的主播身份）。Dunnett检验显示，在观众参与度评分方面，白人男性主播与白人女性（p=0.37）、拉丁裔男性（p=0.66）或亚裔男性（p=0.09）主播相比均无统计学显著差异。同样，在游戏技能评分方面，白人男性主播与白人女性（p=0.10）、拉丁裔男性（p=1.00）或亚裔男性（p=0.59）主播相比也未呈现统计学显著差异。本文进一步探讨了导致统计结果不显著及反直觉发现（即白人女性评分非显著高于白人男性）的潜在因素。