New research from Italy and a meta-study from Austria both connect playing violent video games with antisocial behavior.

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Still convinced that violent video games are harmless fun? You might want to put down that console and consider the findings of two new research papers.

The first, a meta-analysis of 98 studies with nearly 37,000 participants, concludes without equivocation that “violent video games increase aggression.”

The second, which describes new research from Italy, provides further evidence of that troubling dynamic, and indicates they also lead to “decreased self-control and increased cheating.”

“Many real-world decisions require self-regulation of moral behavior,” writes a research team led by psychologist Alessandro Gabbiadini. “Our study indicates that playing violent video games can interfere with this ability.”





[link to www.psmag.com]