Are gamers smarter?

[Zander]

One of the threads on female gamers got me thinking about whether RPGers are smarter than non-gamers on average. I suspect from 20 years of gaming that most gamers think so. What do you reckon?

Please resist the urge to turn this thread into a debate about what intelligence is or isn't. Also, please don't confuse intelligence with education. While you have to be smart to do well academically, being uneducated is not an indication of stupidity (and I'm not saying that because I have a chip on my shoulder - I have three degrees including a PhD).

So are gamers smarter?

 

[Mark]

So are gamers smarter?

Some are. Some are smarter than me, I mean. Perhaps most.

 

[Pseudonym]

So are gamers smarter?

No.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I actually did some research into games and gamers in my abnormal psychology class, back in college. I don't still have the paper, unfortunately, but I did uncover and reference a surprising number of RP-based studies. My intent was to prove, once and for all, that RPGs caused no harmful side-effects or conditions.

Well, the good news is, yes, all the studies show that PRGs do not cause harmful behavior. (Of course, we all knew that already.) Only people who were already mentally unstable were adversely impacted by RPGs.

The bad news is, the research showed that--contrary to, and with all respect to, Mr. Gygax's claims--gamers are not any smarter, on average, than non-gamers of comperable backgrounds and education levels.

(But they're not less so, either.)

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

gamers will tend to have a higher IQ than other people

Since an IQ test looks at rather silly things that have little or nothing to do with actual intelligence or competence, take this as you will.

Gamers will tend to excel in areas of esoteric historical knowledge, simple math performed quickly, and creativity, all of which are tested by the common IQ tests, therefore gamers have a higher IQ than normal.



Of course, I also believe that gamers are actually more intelligent on average than the population on average, if only because we, as a group, excercise our minds on a more regular basis than the average person.

 

[Zander]

Some are. Some are smarter than me, I mean. Perhaps most.

In my experience, gamers are significantly more intelligent than non-gamers but that could be because my sample is biased.

 

[barsoomcore]

That's only bad news if you were hoping to receive qualification for "above average". For those of us less ambitious, we consider it good news to be at least not definitively ranked as "below average".

 

[Gnarlo]

So are gamers smarter?

I can't remember ever meeting a gamer that didn't think he or she was superior to almost everyone else. And while most were in fact better educated (and that was probably just because of the population I hung around, college students), they were from what I can remember no different from any other group. They ranged from fairly intelligent and reasonable people to the stereotypical so intelligent that they couldn't function socially to the stereotypical racist, close-minded, ignorant trash.

 

[Pyruhtkat]

We's sum ove thuh smartist peoples yuo mae ever meet. Bar nun.

So smart we's speshul.

 

[Piratecat]

Most of the gamers I know are more creative than the average person I've met, but this is probably because that's the type of person I enjoy spending time with. I've got no data on whether or not they're smarter. I'd assume not.