PSA: Xbox Fans More Likely to Punch You in the Face

[kitler53]

I took a bit of a leap on that one..  just a little one though.

https://www.ladbible.com/technology/gaming-xbox-gamers-are-quicker-to-anger-than-playstation-users-study-claims-20200902

Do video games make people violent? It's a question that frantic parents and mainstream media outlets have been asking for decades now. The answer, according to countless research papers, tests, and studies, is a resounding "no". For the most part, there is very little to suggest a substantial link between video games and violence.

With that said, an interesting new psychological study has claimed that some gamers are quicker to anger than others. Specifically, new research suggests that Xbox gamers are more prone to aggression than PlayStation users. Using the Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire, professional psychologists surveyed 964 gamers in an attempt to find out which games and platforms engender the most... hostility.

Each participant was asked to choose their favourite three games in order of preference, as well as their system of choice. They then completed the Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire, a 29-question survey that gauges the levels of aggression in individuals based on their response to each question. The questionnaire measures physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility.

The study found that Xbox gamers outranked PlayStation gamers surveyed in all four of the categories. Researchers also discovered that male gamers are 20% more aggressive than female gamers, which sounds surprisingly low to me. What's really interesting is that gamers who put in longer shifts of 20-30 hours a week were found to less aggressive than those who played for 11-20 hours. However those who played a much more casual sub-11 hours a week were the least aggressive of the three groups.

Unsurprisingly, certain games were found to correlate with more aggressive responses too. Call Of Duty, Battlefield, and FIFA all appeared as the top three franchises with links to anger and aggression. Given the nature of these games as super competitive online multiplayer hits, it's no real shock that they'd stress and anger gamers that little bit more. I know I've seen friends fly off the handle during a game of FIFA in some truly terrifying ways.

If anything can be taken from this study - and I certainly wouldn't hold it up as definitive proof of anything - it's that any aggression that comes from video games is likely as a result of their competitive nature, rather than any violence that may or not be in the game itself. While Battlefield and Call Of Duty are obviously pretty violent shooters, FIFA is a series about kicking a ball up and down the field. The only aggression there comes when people get a little too into it and start to lose.