Links with RPG Negativity Examples

I don't (yet) have hard, empirical data about how many of the non-gamers have such exposure/knowldge, just my observations and interviews over the decades, in speaking with hundreds of gamers (thousands now?), and hundreds (thousands?) of non-gamers about role-playing gamers. If people do not know the term "RPG", almost everyone knows "Dungeons & Dragons". Many (most?) of the non-gamers I have met when discussing the topic claim to have seen, or personally known, someone they believe to be a role-playing gamer, and almost all have had a negative association in their view, to some degree, some quite severe (the most recent this spring an older woman blaming a double homicide in Idaho on D&D (I'm writing a lengthy essay on that series of interviews).

This does seem to be far worse in the USA than most other countries (reportedly from others).

Also, though not an issue in the 80's and 90's, since the 2000's many non-rpgers now confuse computer-based RPG (World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls series, etc.) with tabletop RPG, so it takes a little more conversation to clarify than it used to. Some also confuse LARP wit tabletop as well.

I hope down the road to develop this into more detailed research.

In my many conversations on the topic, the vast majority of non-gamers I encountered had negative views of role-playing gamers if they had not ever participated in RPG themselves.

Also, for decades, folks at work did not know I was an RPGer, and I would periodically hear them making negative comments on the topic, about others, in various fields.

Many of the responses are in line with the topics here: (I tried to post links with details examples, but site won't let me yet <sigh> ).
The-Defamation-of-Role-playing-Games-and-Gamers - http://rpgresearch.com/documents/rpg-research-documents/RPGR-A003-The-Defamation-of-Role-playing-Games-and-Gamers-Orig-20081120a-Ver2-20081206a-Ver3-20111209a.pdf/view ,
here: Personalities-and-Alienation-of-Dungeons-and-Dragons-Game-Players - http://rpgresearch.com/documents/rpg-research-documents/RPGR-A005-Personalities-and-Alienation-of-Dungeons-and-Dragons-Game-Players-long-commentary-version-Ver-2-20111209c.pdf/view ,
here: D&D - http://rpgresearch.com/documents/other-projects-documents/d_a_d.htm ,
And also, the "Man in the street" section of the DVD "UberGoober" shows these typical reactions as well: http://rpgresearch.com/documents/movies-videos-shows/uber-goober

While from 1979 through 2005 I was basically a "private" gamer (though more public for a while between '84 to '87)., I have become far more public due to necessity from the nature of my research goals, so the topic comes up far more frequently than might otherwise of course. :-)

Hope that is also useful information for you and others.