“Stable” personalities unaffected by violent video games
A study done for the journal Psychology, Crime, and Law has given children personality tests and then had them play a violent game – specifically Quake II. Somehow, before and after the kids were tested for anger levels.
Now first, before you decide whether this study is valid, take into account this statement (emphasis mine):
“They designed a study in which measures of anger levels acted as a proxy for violent behavior. They recruited 135 children, but were forced to kick some out of the study due to bad behavior, leaving them with about 110 boys and 15 girls with a mean age of 14.6 years”
The study concluded that for children with personalities considered “stable,” anger levels were unaffected by the violent game; however, for children with personalities grouped as “less stable,” their anger levels went up.
“The authors propose that gamers fall into two groups: stable personalities, and those with emotional states that are susceptible to being influenced by game play. Within the latter group, the response to violent games largely depends on the emotional states of the gamers when they begin play. Angry gamers will cool off, calm gamers will get agitated. They also note that only two of the cases of rising anger reached levels that would be considered cause for concern, suggesting that dangerous levels of anger were rarely triggered by gaming.”
Next up: EBGamestop forces you to take the MMPI (a 3-hour personality test) before buying games.
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sifer2400
