How Does Gaming Affect Personality?

The degree of addictive video game use has been found to be related to personality traits such as low self-esteem (Ko et al., 2005) and low self-efficacy (Jeong and Kim, 2011), anxiety, and aggression (Mehroof and Griffiths, 2010), and even to clinical symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders (Wang et al., 2018).

What personality traits do gamers have?

They found neuroticism was positively correlated with pathological gaming, while the remaining Big Five personality traits (i.e., extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) were negatively correlated with pathological gaming.

How does gaming affect you mentally?

Gaming has also been associated with sleep deprivation, insomnia and circadian rhythm disorders, depression, aggression, and anxiety, though more studies are needed to establish the validity and the strength of these connections.