Study debunks belief that playing with your Wii can lead to aggression

Confirming something most of us already know, a new study coming out of Villanova University indicates that motion controls do not increase aggression in people who play violent video games.

Certainly inspired by the controversy controversy surrounding the Wii release of Manhunt 2, a study titled “An examination of psychoticism and motion capture controls as moderators of the effects of violent video games” (Patrick M. Markey and Kelly Scherera, 2008, Department of Psychology, Villanova University) examined the “hostility and aggressive thoughts” in individuals while they played Manhunt 2 as well as Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08. A total of 50 male and 68 female college students were subjected to a psychoticism test before and after playing the two titles. Each game was played with motion controls as well as button-based controls.

To the dismay of anti-video game activists everywhere, the study concluded that motion controls do not raise levels of hostile behavior or aggression any more than button-based controls. Furthermore, people with raised levels of psychoticism before playing violent video games are more affected by them than people with lower levels.

Here’s a snippet from the study’s abstract:

Results indicated that the use of motion capture controls did not increase the negative effects of violent video games. However, participants with elevated levels of psychoticism were much more affected by violent video games than other participants. Such findings suggest that only some individuals are adversely affected by violent video games and that those who are affected have preexisting dispositions which make them susceptible to such violent media.

Although most gamers may argue this study was pointless, perhaps it can help to further diffuse the argument that violent video games lead otherwise normal people to commit real-life violent acts.

Read [Science Direct (Study Abstract)] Via [Wired Blog] Also Read [1Up]