New Study Claims Playing Violent Games Can Actually Reduce Your Stress

A PhD researcher has suggested in their study that playing violent video games could have a relaxing effect on their players.

[Vengeance1138]

They really needed a "Study" to know this? Pretty common sense. When stressed people need to blow off steam, they can't exactly go around killing people in real life, so they get to do so in the digital world. Punch people, murder them, torture them, everything can be done in the digital world. Everything that is pent up inside in the real world, just release in the digital, its just very very common sense.

[Tapani]

Be careful with your generalisation and jumping to conclusion mindset.

If you read the wording carefully, it says "has concluded that violent video games may relieve stress in some players". Keywords: "may" and "some".

Also, you say "stressed people" instead of "some male players" - there's a significant difference between those categories. One is pretty much every adult in the world who has high cortisol levels (stress hormone), including females (who were not tested in this research), and other is a test group of selected male participants for a small scale experiment in restricted environment.

You need to read science in a scientific way.

What is common sense to you, or in your culture or in the circle of people you know, may very well not be common sense to someone else in an entirely different part of the world where value sets are different.

It is very easy to say in hindsight after seeing objective evidence on something that "I knew it, it is common sense!" If the results were the very opposite, you would not be able to say the same thing, right?

Why don't we let the empirical and evidence based science, rather than let our "common sense" which is entirely subjective, dictate our way of thinking.

That being said, personally, I like metanalysis more than one study here and there, even though most of these singular studies say very clearly that "more evidence and research is needed before we can make clear conclusions." And that is the way it should be in exact science as well.

[Vengeance1138]

Lmao how much time did you waste writing all that nonsense you just vomited?

How about you be "careful" and I comment exactly how I please? Sound good kid?

Again, no study was needed, as it's very common sense. Releasing stress in a game via killing will always be a great thing as it's not possible in reality.

[JackBNimble]

Assumptions are not common sense.

[Tapani]

@Vengeance1138
I'm 42-years old father and husband and also have a scientific background from early part of my career. I would like to think I know what I'm talking about.

Maybe your common sense was mistaken here as you thought I was a kid?

[thorstein]

Yes. We really need to study these things and make them quantifiable and falsifiable. That is the beauty of science and why it is so much better than conjecture.

Sure, it makes sense to US that games relieve stress, but proving it makes it amazing.

Oh so many years ago, when I was in college, for extra credit, I helped with experiments on violent games impact on players. After the data was collected, we discovered that violent games did not make people more violent.

Sure, most of us knew that already (it wasn't my study, I wasn't credited) but to prove it and put the methodology out there for others to replicate in peer review was really awesome.

So, yes. These studies are needed. Not everyone is a gamer.

[AuraAbjure]

Well said, I agree.

[Demetrius]

Lmao playing gems period reduces and relaxes ya fr specially when you're single no kids 😌

[CrimsonWing69]

It’s called catharsis.

[ZeekQuattro]

Best kind of game for me to relax to is a musou game. Mindless fun.

[jznrpg]

Of course it does. Sit down, escape for a little bit and have some fun.

[Profchaos]

Have they played demon souls.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

And here people bring out the pitchforks anytime someone like me confesses to liking young anime girls in TV and games, lol

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

How young are we talking about here? High-school young? Or 2,000 year-old dragon shaped in a child's body to please pedophiles young?

[HomoLuden]

Meditate for stress & health, Games & creative pursuits for expression of joy ! :)

[OhReginald]

playing any game reduces stress really, until it becomes an addiction of course.

[notachance]

as long as you’re not playing ranked I guess..