Gaming ruining young men: study

Video games and pornography are ruining young men for relationships and schoolwork, according to a new study.

CNN has published an article co-authored by psychologists Nikita Duncan and Dr Philip Zimbardo which claims that video games are "creating a generation of risk-averse guys who are unable (and unwilling) to navigate the complexities and risk inherent to real-life relationships, school and employment.”

If Dr Zimbardo’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he is one of the brains behind the notorious Stanford Prison Experiment – where he allowed his test subjects to undergo psychological torture.

The article is promoting a new book by Duncan and Zimbardo, called The Demise of Guys: Why Boys are Struggling and What We Can Do About It.

It describes video games and porn as ‘arousal addictions’, different from regular addictions because they are constantly varied and novel.

Unfortunately, this constantly changing stimulus has young men ‘digitally rewired’ to demand such variation in all aspects of life, leaving those worst affected unable to function romantically.

Romantic relationships "tend to build gradually and subtly, and require interaction, sharing, developing trust and suppression of lust at least until ‘the time is right’.”

Of course, no research on video games can be complete without claims they are causing violence.

"Given the opportunity, both adults and children were more aggressive after playing violent games,” the book says.

"And people who identify themselves with violent perpetrators in video games are able to take aggressive action while playing that role, reinforcing aggressive behaviour.”

The article also refers to rumours that Norwegian killer Anders Breivik played World of Warcraft for a year, and at one point was spending 16 hours a day playing Call of Duty.

Check out Duncan’s video interview with CNN here, and let us know your thoughts - are video games and porn ruining men?