Personality traits of a modern gambler

Nowadays, there is much concern about gaming addiction (gambling addiction). Anonymity of game space encourages to create “the new self” and materialize different tendencies of personality, including destructive ones. Gambling (game addiction) is a pathological desire for games. It is manifested in frequent and recurrent episodes of gaming that dominate a person’s life and lead to diminishing of social, professional and other values. Roblox game platform announced that the number of active users exceeded 150 million people per month during the Covid-19 pandemic, i.e. 35 million more than before the lockdown. This study is an attempt to describe the psychological profile of a modern gambler. The following methods were used: MMPI test, Rokeach Value Survey (RVS), Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, Shmelyov Humorous Phrases Test, Zukerman Sensation Seeking Scale, hand test, pathopsychological test. Persistent gamers, 40 young people aged from 16 to 28 – 20 young men and 20 young women – participated in the study. Among them, 26 participants spend more than 3 hours per day gaming.

In general, MMPI test revealed below-standard personality profiles, which may be related to higher levels of cautiousness and suspiciousness. Increases in the below-standard profile were identified for 26 participants on the psychasthenia scale and for 23 participants on the hypochondria scale, making a case for suggesting somatization of anxiety in the gamer’s profile. Hostility as a factor of readiness for aggression positively correlates with the majority of the main MMPI scales: depression (r=0.76, p<0.01), hysteria (r=0.76, p<0.01), psychopathy (r=0.63, p<0.05), paranoia (r=0.65, p<0.05) and psychasthenia (r=0.88, p<0.001). Women are more hypochondric than men (p=0.07). The results of the hand test match with the ones of MMPI. The survey of 22 participants revealed expectation of aggression (anxiety + aggressiveness). The answers reflected a feeling of discomfort or had restrictive ritual connotations (“hide”, “cover”, “turn off”, etc.).