Women who play violent games think they are better girlfriends, study says

A new study by scientists at the University of South Wales (USW) in Australia found that the motivation of many people to play violent video game titles is strongly related to their desire for sex. In addition, research indicates that for women, enjoying a game full of gunfire, explosions and blood makes them feel more attractive to the opposite sex.

To do the work, evolutionary scientist Michael Kasumovic and Tom Denson, associate professor of psychology at USW, interviewed 500 adult US men and women who consider themselves gamers. Scholars initially asked each candidate to name the five games they most recently played and explain how violent they thought these titles were.

While men have indeed shown themselves to enjoy violent games more than women, researchers reveal that the gender gap was not as large as stereotypes often suggest. Next, the scientists asked questions to gauge each participant's interest in sex and asked the volunteers to evaluate their own value as potential boyfriends.

Gamers and sexy

“What we found is that sexual desire is related to playing violent games. Both men and women who say they are more interested in sex tend to have more fun with sex titles. But most interesting was what we saw when we looked at 'value as a partner', the researchers explained in the study.

Although scientists have found no relationship between how many violent games men play and how they think of themselves as potential boyfriends, the same cannot be said of women. According to Kasumovic and Denson, the relationship between the two factors was strong in females, with participants enjoying violent titles clearly considering themselves "better parties" than those who prefer other types of games.

To confirm the results, the scientists repeated the survey with over 500 participants and took the opportunity to ask volunteers to rate how strong the games make them feel strong, attractive and sexy. "It seems that women were driven to games because it improved their perception of themselves as high-quality romantic partners, " the scholars say.

Head to Head

Kasumovic and Denson claim that the finding makes evolutionary sense, as, like any animal, people who could compete better for supplies and partners ended up having more children. Thus, those who want access to a wider range of suitors need to be competitive enough to have access to them.

"So violent games may be triggering some ancestral bias toward competitive behaviors that serve to prove their own values ​​as mates, " the study develops. Since games like this often provide a virtual arena that allows men and women to compete on an equal footing, Kasumovic and Denson named their finding the "dominance practice hypothesis."

And you, do you think gamers really do find themselves better girlfriends than non-gamers? Do you believe the research is generalist and has no practical use? Leave your opinion in the comments.