If your teenager is quick to anger and depression, disagreeable and likes to break rules, video games may not just be letting him blow off steam, but may actually accentuate his dark tendencies, a study by professors from Villanova and Rutgers concluded.

And if your kid doesn’t have those issues, video games may not warp his young mind.

In a paper published in the Review of General Psychology, the professors single out the mental traits that make a kid predisposed to becoming more vicious when he sets to get his Modern Warfare 2 on.

The research found the worst combination of traits to be high neuroticism, low agreeableness, indifference to others feelings, cold, etc. and low conscientiousness. So basically every teen I’ve ever met. And certainly myself at that age. It’s a wonder I didn’t become a turtle-stomping menace to society.

Vulnerability to Violent Video Games: A Review and Integration of
Personality Research [American Psychological Association]
(Thanks, Kathleen!)

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