Study: Violent Video Games Lower Hostility

A new study of video games suggests that playing actively can lead to a reduction in stress levels and in hostility for players. The new data comes from the Texas A&M International University and Doctor Christopher J. Ferguson, who is a an associate professor.

The study was performed with the help of 103 young adults who are given a frustrating task that they needed to perform. After a while they were randomly distributed into groups, with one playing a violent game as a hero, one playing the same game as the villain, one playing a video game which lacked violence and a group not playing at all. The groups who engaged in some video game activity said that their stress levels dropped and results also showed a reduction in their hostility.

Dr. Ferguson stated, “It probably won’t come to a surprise to gamers that playing games may reduce stress although others have been skeptical of this idea. This is the first study that explores this idea, however. It does seem that playing violent games may help reduce stress and make people less depressed and hostile.”

The study makes it clear that the results show a correlation rather than a causation and that further research is needed in order to see what's the exact relation between stress levels, video games and young adults. Other studies, which used children as the subjects, have previously shown that playing violent video games can increase the level of hostility. The research failed to uncover any causality between the two but has been widely quoted by those who seek to blame the evils of society on the new medium of gaming.

Dr. Ferguson has said that the new findings could lead to the development of new therapy techniques that use video games as a way to lower the stress levels of young adults and make them more open to talking about the sources of stress in their lives.