New Study: Video Games as Addictive as Alcohol and Gambling

Lisa Franchi November 27, 2012

Attentional bias – a key factor in determining whether certain behaviours are clinically addictive or not, appears to occur in some gamers, a psychology researcher found.

Debates on whether or not excessive gaming can be classified as an addiction is still going on. No conclusion has been established yet due to the limited scientific research investigating the behavioural and psychological patterns of gamers as compared to those who were clinically diagnosed with addiction. In her research, Olivia Metcalf, a PhD student at the Australian National University, provided some of the first scientific evidence that video gaming can be addictive, just like alcohol and gambling.

Video games can be addictive

"People who spend an excessive amount of time playing video games are powerless to stop themselves from thinking about gaming,” she said. This specific pattern is very similar to that of addiction.

In her study, Metcalf recruited 20 individuals: 15 had problematic video gaming behaviours while 19 were non-gamers. In a computerised-modified Stroop task, participants were presented with different words and were asked to respond according to the colour of each word, not the meaning. The ‘gaming addicts’ showed slower response in naming the colour of the gaming-related word than those words that had nothing to do with the gaming. When the test was conducted in non-gamers, Metcalf found no difference between the response times.

Excessive gamers demonstrated attentional bias

Metcalf and her team concluded that those who had excessive gaming problems demonstrated attentional bias which is comparable with the research investigating the same behavioural response in established addictions such as drug abuse, alcoholism and gambling. For years, attentional bias has been considered a major factor in the development of addiction. She also found a negative relationship between attentional bias and the degree of addiction, and no relationship between the gamers and controls as to anxiety, depression and stress levels.

The researchers also found that excessive gamers tend to give most of their attention to the gaming information even if they don’t want to think about gaming. This makes quitting or stopping the habit even more difficult.

“They are unable to stop themselves”.

While most people who play video games do not experience negative effects, the researchers argued that a minority of excessive gamers do. They experience adverse consequences in their diet, sleep, relationship, and work or school as a result of their inability to stop gaming. Researchers suggest that their study can be used by psychologists in developing treatments for gamers who are unable to stop. They also recommend conducting more studies to understand the internet-use addictive disorders, which include excessive gaming.

Dear Readers,

Would you agree video games can be as addictive as alcohol and gambling? Could this apply to anything in theory?

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Source of this article:

Video gaming addiction can control your thoughts, recommendation for further study