New Study: No Link Between Games and Anti-Social Behavior

[solemnwar]

I think the people who play games and are "anti-social" (or perhaps just have social anxiety?) were such BEFORE playing games. I know I was. I'm an introvert by nature, I love having "me" time and I get very exhausted if I can't have time to myself.

Single player games are good for "me" time. I can be as utterly selfish as I want, practically consequence-free

Now, the games with an addiction factor to them (like WoW I guess?) are probably another matter entirely... but aren't they DESIGNED to make you want to keep playing them so you'll keep paying them?

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

As mentioned, seeing what people are like after playing a game for 20 minutes is missing the point, or deliberately constructing a strawman.

It's most likely an effect of the way research participation credit systems work in Australian universities. Not sure about grad level courses but in undergrad courses with a research participation requirement usually only need a small number of hours (3hrs for Level 1 Psych at Adelaide Uni) to fulfill those requirements. Given that there are usually dozens of research projects going at any given time, it makes demand for participants high. To prevent fistfights between project groups, most unis limit the amount of time any given project can utilise students needing course credit.

Plus, if this study originates from the School of Psychology, they'd had to have sold the Human Research Ethics Committee on the merits of the study to go ahead with it. They can get really touchy about shit if you're asking for too many research hours.

To be completely honest, though, this study sounds like something an undergrad student would throw together.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

"anti-social" (or perhaps just have social anxiety?)

You're confusing unsociable (the opposite of sociable, which relates to socialising) with antisocial (which means 'detrimental to society').

 

[RJ 17]

Chalk another one up in the column for "Studies That Show No Link Between Violent Games And Real Life Behavior."

And yet lawmakers and politicians still insist "We need more studies, MORE DAMNIT!" Granted, games have always been an easy target for politicians just looking to score points with their constituents by holding said games up as a straw-man to burn, but it really is silly how study after study after mother-lovin' study comes out saying "Nope, no link to be found" yet they still insist that games are to blame for things like the Sandy Hook shooting.

To put it in internet terms: Crazy person is Crazy. They didn't need games to make them crazy, they were crazy to begin with.

So to tell you something you probably already know, playing violent videogames won't suddenly turn you into a humanity-hating hermit.

no, Humanity will turn you into a Humanity-hating hermit.

I'd say that pretty much sums things up.

 

[Covarr]

I'm positive there's a link, but I think it's the other way around. Being an "anti-social, introverted loner" makes you more likely to resort to gaming to seek fulfillment.

P.S. Thanks

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I came here expecting to see what the title suggested. I already strongly believed that violent games don't make you anti social anymore than games in general might.

 

[Ken Sapp]

Nice to people turning in results but this kind of study isn't particularly conclusive. From the description it is both too limited in time and test subjects to make any firm statements about whether gaming can cause X or Y behavior patterns. Needs to be a long term study with a significant time investment in the actual playing of games. Twenty minutes is just not long enough to have a a really significant effect on the behavior of anyone. Also, the nature of the test subjects needs to be taken into account as well. I don't know about Australia but here in the US grad students tend to a much narrower spectrum of personality types than could be considered representative of the general population. So while I like the conclusion, I don't think I will be using it in any arguments to defend gaming until they have taken the next step and carried out a serious long term study with a wider range of test subjects and materials.

 

[Weaver]

This test seems really shitty.

It doesn't cover lifelong gamers and I'm not sure that picking up someone's pen or not can really be the end all be all call to if you're anti-social or not

It would be like getting someone drunk once, checking that their liver didn't fail then concluding alcohol consumption does not cause liver damage.

I'm positive there's a link, but I think it's the other way around. Being an "anti-social, introverted loner" makes you more likely to resort to gaming to seek fulfillment.

I think this is more likely the case. People who are anti-social will seek alternative means of fulfillment. Gaming can provide that.

 

[Glaice]

I wish our bumbling politicians would stop being dolts and blaming games for the number of shootings we've had in the States. Games are not the scapegoat, the dwindled quality of mental health care and the deinstitutionalization are two factors why this happens on a more frequent basis.

 

[Norithics]

I'm positive there's a link, but I think it's the other way around. Being an "anti-social, introverted loner" makes you more likely to resort to gaming to seek fulfillment.

Yeah, this, absolutely. I think rather than being a cause, video games- like any kind of entertainment you can engage with by yourself and glut on- are only ever at worst a symptom of a much larger problem. Rather than picking on what the kids with stunted social skills do in their free time, why not focus on what makes them socially stunted to begin with and, I dunno, outreach a little?

 

[barbzilla]

Potential issue I see here (outside of the size and length of the study) that kind of invalidates the outcome. They only used grad students. These are people who are participating at higher social levels to begin with. There is no variance and no control group. The only thing this study proves is that Grad students who play video games for 20 minutes will pick up a person's pen provided said person is asking them questions.

 

[ShadowHand25]

"New Study"? I thought it was common knowledge.

 

[Reeve]

I assume most people that visit this site play a lot of video games. So are you guys antisocial or not?

 

[Johnson McGee]

Uh, with all due respect to the science folks, sitting at home for hours on end with the curtains closed and gaming away JUST MIGHT leave a mark on your social life.. just talking from experience..

The anti-social behaviour they were testing for doesn't refer to having no social life or being an introvert, it means having little empathy for others and being more likely to engage in cruel or criminal acts.

OT: This study has been done many times before in different ways, the defining characteristic of this one is a somewhat larger sample size which gives it a bit more reliability but it's still a weak conclusion. On the other hand, one could just look at census data and market reports for game purchases to show that there's no correlation between increased video game consumption and violence.

 

[Aeonknight]

Uh, with all due respect to the science folks, sitting at home for hours on end with the curtains closed and gaming away JUST MIGHT leave a mark on your social life.. just talking from experience..

And who's fault is it at that point that you chose to sit at home rather than go out?

It may be a hobby preferred by anti social people, but the hobby itself is not the cause. Correlation != causation and all that.

 

[JFKRowling]

Unless anyone on the planet believes that sitting down once and playing an "anti-social" or violent video game once for half an hour could possibly have any lasting effect on someone's personality, and I'm having a hard time imagining how anyone could, then this study accomplishes nothing except for wasting the participants' time and making whomever designed it seem like an idiot.

The argument that people put forward is that it is unhealthy for people, and especially for kids, to spend too much of their time playing video games over a long period of time. This doesn't seem like something that would be overwhelmingly difficult to test, and it would almost certainly yield more interesting results than this schlock which provides a self-evident answer to a question that nobody was asking.

 

[likalaruku]

I don't know whether or not I want to call BS on this. As a kid I was a social gamer, but as an adult I only socialize online & play more games than I ever did as a kid. Then again, I "suddenly" because antisocial & unable to sleep at night/function in the day around puberty. I never grew out of that, but I'm not nearly as antisocial & self-centered as I was in my teens.

 

[RJ Dalton]

And just what the hell is wrong with being an anti-social introvert?

*whispers from off-stage*

Oh, I have just been informed that the term I was thinking of was asocial, which is entirely different from anti-social. Carry on then.

 

[DragonStorm247]

They basically did this already with the pencils. Although its different results this time, the last one was like "ZOMG THE GAMERS DIDNT PICK UP THE PENCILS THEY MUST BE PSYCHO".

I don't particularly put stock in the reliablity of such a method to begin with, but at least this throws into question that previous study (if it wasn't called into question already).