Do you play Grand Theft Auto to relax? You might have Machiavellian traits, scientists say

Do drug deals, shootouts and police raids sound like your idea of ​​a relaxing evening?

If so, scientists say you may have a dark personality.

A study from the University of Luxembourg found that people with Machiavellian personalities found violent games like GTA 6 more relaxing.

Researchers say this could be because the game satisfied their need for power and dominance.

However, contrary to some claims, the study found no link between violent games and increased aggression.

Previous studies have raised concerns that playing violent video games leads to an increase in violent behavior.

To test this theory in their new study, the researchers recruited 54 men between the ages of 18 and 60 and randomly assigned them to play a violent or non-violent section of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.

Saliva samples were taken before playing, after 25 minutes of playing, and 20 minutes after finishing the game to examine how the subjects’ hormone levels reacted to the game.

The subjects also took an “aggressive cognition” test to see if they had become more violent after playing the game.

Previous theories suggested that playing a violent game would cause the body to go into flight-or-flight mode, increasing levels of cortisol and testosterone, the “aggression hormones.”

However, researchers discovered that the opposite was actually true.

Lead author Gary Wagener said: “Although previous research suggested a link between playing violent video games and acts of aggression, our findings show that violent video games do not increase aggression and may also relax some players, depending on their personality”.

Subjects who played the violent section showed significant decreases in cortisol and no increases in testosterone or aggressive cognition.

However, the study also found that people with dark personality types experienced a much larger drop in their cortisol levels.

The researchers tested the subjects for each of the ‘dark tetrad’ personalities: Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism and everyday sadism.

Machiavellian personality types respond positively to questions such as: “It is not wise to tell your secrets.”

People with these personality traits showed larger-than-normal stress reductions when they played the violent game, but they actually became more stressed when they played the nonviolent section.

However, narcissism, everyday sadism, and psychopathy had no effect on people’s reaction to the game.

The researchers suggest that this is because people who score high on Machiavellianism tend to have a greater desire to exert control.

Writing in his study, published the journal Physiology & BehaviorWagener and his co-authors said: ‘PParticipants who tend to exert more control based on their personality characteristics and who were given the opportunity to do so in the violent game condition could satisfy their need for control and dominance.

“Furthermore, participants with higher Machiavellianism scores view and use aggression as instrumentalization to achieve their needs and goals of exerting power.”

Violence in video games has long been pointed out as the reason behind incidents of violence in real life.

Most famously, Wayne LaPierre blamed the 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook on the perpetrator’s obsession with violent games.

Similarly, Donald Trump blamed the 2019 El Paso shooting on social media and violent games rather than lax gun regulation in the United States.

However, multiple studies have shown that there is no evidence of a link between on-screen and off-screen violence.

A study conducted in London in 2021 found that the violent behavior of male adolescents was not affected by exposure to violent video games.

The report’s authors concluded that policies aimed at reducing children’s exposure to violence in games are unlikely to reduce violence.

However, the NHS maintains that video game addiction can cause children to become violent.