A new study is hitting the reset button on the notion that playing violent video games make you more aggressive.
The study from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany separated 77 people into three groups for two months: 25 played the super-violent Grand Theft Auto, 24 played the low-key social simulator The Sims, and the remainder didn't play any video games.
Head researcher Simone Kühn noted that questionnaires later filled out by all participants reflected no changes in empathy, impulsiveness, anxiety, mood, and other behaviors -- especially aggression. "We did not find relevant negative effects in response to violent video game playing," Kühn noted in a press release on the findings. "The fact that we assessed multiple domains, not finding an effect in any of them, makes the present study the most comprehensive in the field."She explained further, "Only three of the 208 statistical tests performed showed any significant changes that could allude to more violent behavior," adding "these are explained through coincidence."