According to a recent study due for publication in the September issue of Psychological Science, breast-feeding moms are more aggressive than moms who use baby formula.
If you’re wondering why news about breast-feeding moms is even relevant on a gaming site, it’s because the study used video games to test their aggression levels (and not because some new breast-feeding mom game just launched in Japan).
According to a report over on i09, the researchers’ hypothesis was that breast-feeding moms demonstrate increased levels of aggression, and to prove this, they had participants engage in a “computerized, competitive, reaction-time test against a research assistant posing as an overtly confrontational study participant”.
So, basically, something like Halo on Xbox LIVE.
When the participant won a round, they were allowed to press a button that delivered a “punitive sound burst” to the research assistant. And what did they find?
“Breast-feeding mothers inflicted louder and longer punitive sound bursts on unduly aggressive confederates than did formula-feeding mothers or women who had never been pregnant.”
About twice as aggressive, it turns out.
I’m sure the researchers will put it more scientifically than this, but I’d imagine that having a screaming meatbag dangling off your chesticles for several hours each day is probably not doing much to promote a sense of love and harmony. I mean, yuck.
Breast-feeding moms are more aggressive gamers: study << Comments and views