One of the general problems with a large body of psychological research is that it’s conducted on college campuses with most of the subjects being college students. A study has been conducted in the glorious state of Utah that claims to show that gamers are more likely to use controlled substances and make negative decisions.

When they surveyed 800 students they found that students who played video games regularly were 10% more likely to drink or take drugs then their non-gaming friends. Those who play daily were three times more likely to smoke pot, stop talking to friends and family or have low self-esteem.

Unfortunately for these researchers, college kids have been drinking since before video games were anything but a bar room novelty. Films like Animal House and television shows are much more to blame for the prevalence of teenage drinking and drug use than all the video games rolled into one. Conducting a study on how a generally irresponsible group with vast amounts of free time amuse themselves sounds like a bad idea, especially when you throw in the fact that BYU is a religious school.