The fifth player: Understanding bystander responses to gender-based exclusion in esports

Children and adolescents evaluate gender-based exclusion by drawing on multiple contextual and individual factors. This pre-registered study examined how excluder intentionality, peer norms, and victim response, shaped bystander judgments and responses to the exclusion of a girl from an esports football team. Data were collected in Türkiye between December 2024 and April 2025. Participants were 572 Turkish students aged 11-18 years (M = 14.44, SD = 1.78, 347 girls), including 227 middle school and 345 high school students. Race and ethnicity were not assessed; the sociocultural context of the sample is described by recruitment country. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 8 conditions varying excluder intentionality, bystander peer norms, and victim response. Boys judged exclusion as more acceptable and fair than girls, whereas girls were more likely to favor inclusion of the excluded peer. Exclusion was judged as more acceptable and fair when the excluder had good intentions. Peer norms and victim response were especially relevant for later bystander intervention steps. Higher theory of mind, empathy, affiliative humor, and growth mindset, and lower aggressive humor and gender stereotype endorsement, predicted more prosocial bystander responses. Findings clarify how contextual and individual factors jointly inform responses to gender-based exclusion.