Video game addiction a lot like Asperger’s syndrome, researchers say

According to a pair of psychology professors, Dr. John Charlton and Dr. Ian Danforth, being addicted to video games is a lot like what is experienced by sufferers of the social disorder called Asperger’s Syndrome. This disorder, not medically recognized until fairly recently, is recognizable by sufferers’ intense discomfort in social situations, withdrawl from conversation with others, inability to recognize emotional cues, and intense fixation on arcane, highly technical topics (like model railroad building or statistics).

According to these two university researchers, people who play a large quantity of video games tend to exhibit many of the same traits as sufferers of these more serious disorders:

“The thinking in the field is that there is a scale along which people, even those considered to be ‘normal’, can be placed upon. And that people such as engineers, mathematicians and computer scientists are nearer to the non-empathising, systemising, end of the spectrum, with people with Aspergers syndrome even further along again. Our research supports the idea that people who are heavily involved in game playing may be nearer to autistic spectrum disorders than people who have no interest in gaming.”

This is very interesting research, and it will undoubtedly spur more debate in behavioral science and psychology about the true relationship — if any — between video games and social behavior. In the meantime, their research has not quite convinced me to put down my PSP and go outside, but it might get me thinking about how playing games potentially shapes my human interactions. In the meantime, who wants to check out my uber-realistic model train kit?