While some anti-gaming activists would love nothing more than to find new research that definitively links real life violence with violence in video games, one recent study in Britain found that playing violent video games online actually has a tendency to make people less angry. Miss Jane Barnett and her colleagues at Middlesex University are presenting their results at the British Psychological Society's Annual Conference in Dublin today (April 2).

For the study, 292 male and female World of Warcraft players, aged between 12 and 83, were given a questionnaire on anger, aggression and personality. The participants then played the game for two hours and then completed the survey yet again. Ultimately, the results showed that "the gamers were more likely to feel calm or tired after playing – but there were differences depending on sex, age and personality."

"There were actually higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the game as opposed to experiencing anger but this did very much depend on personality type. This will help us to develop a emotion and gaming questionnaire to help distinguish the type of gamer who is likely to transfer their online aggression into everyday life," explained Barnett.