Who's to Blame, THE Addict or the Game?: A Meta-analysis of the Role that Personality Plays in Gaming Addiction and its Correlates
Abstract
Addiction to video games is a serious issue to society, the gaming industry, and to the individuals dependent on video-game play. However, to what degree is an individual's inherent proclivity (i.e., their personality) responsible for gaming addiction (GA) and the detrimental correlates of GA (e.g., depression, work performance)? The detrimental correlates of GA are often attributed as being the consequence of it. However, personality, which is a stable characteristic that predicts an individual's tendency to act, think, and feel a particular way, is as high as 49% hereditary for certain traits (Loehlin, 1992). Therefore, this leaves the question open as to what degree does personality play in a person's risk of being a gaming addict. Furthermore, to what degree does personality drive the outcomes that have heretofore been assumed to be the consequences of GA (e.g., depression, poor work performance, low grades)? We use psychometric meta-analytic techniques (Schmidt & Hunter, 2014) across more than 50 independent study samples (N > 57, 000 individuals) from around the world. We find that Big Five and other personality traits are significantly related to GA. We also find that GA is significantly related to lower levels of mental health, while its relationship to school performance is equivocal. Finally, we find that personality is a relatively more important at explaining variance in these outcomes than GA is, thereby suggesting that video games to some degree might be a form of coping or “self-medication” for individuals who are already prone to mental health challenges to begin with. There is no significant effect for age, and we estimate roughly 20% of gaming addicts in the population are in fact females.
Department(s)
Management
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57518/digrajproc.10.0_114
Keywords
addiction, gaming, gaming disorder, mental health, meta-analysis
Publication Date
1-1-2022
Recommended Citation
Goering, Daniel D.; Guo, Xiang; Sota, Yuji; and Hosoi, Koichi, "Who's to Blame, THE Addict or the Game?: A Meta-analysis of the Role that Personality Plays in Gaming Addiction and its Correlates" (2022). Faculty Scholarship. 827.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/articles00/827
Journal Title
Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference Isecon
