--- title: Study Finds Gamers Social, Not Loners description: "Gamers aren’t the antisocial basement-dwellers we see in pop culture stereotypes" canonical: https://time.com/41931/study-gamers-not-loners-social/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-31T20:12:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:08:19.115Z og:title: Study Says Gamers Aren't Loners Who Lock Themselves In Their Basements Anymore og:description: "Gamers aren’t the antisocial basement-dwellers we see in pop culture stereotypes" og:url: https://time.com/41931/study-gamers-not-loners-social/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ec7728dbc41e1a6/69868823f983e7012e04d0c2/162536127.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 162536127 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Study Says Gamers Aren't Loners Who Lock Themselves In Their Basements Anymore twitter:description: "Gamers aren’t the antisocial basement-dwellers we see in pop culture stereotypes" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ec7728dbc41e1a6/69868823f983e7012e04d0c2/162536127.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Study Says Online Gamers Aren't Loners Who Lock Themselves In Their Basements Anymore by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Mar 31, 2014 8:12 PM UTC  Man playing video game at home Man playing video game at homeNazra Zahri / Getty Images by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Mar 31, 2014 8:12 PM UTC A [new study](http://www.cnet.com/news/study-finds-online-gamers-arent-anti-social-basement-dwellers/) finds that the typical 2014 gamer doesn’t fit the old, reductive stereotypes. “Gamers aren’t the antisocial basement-dwellers we see in pop culture stereotypes, they’re highly social people,” Dr. Nick Taylor, North Caroline State communications professor and lead author, [said in a release.](http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/wms-taylor-gamelife2014/) “This won’t be a surprise to the gaming community, but it’s worth telling everyone else. Loners are the outliers in gaming, not the norm.” Taylor and other researchers attended 20 different gaming events in the UK and Canada, with crowds ranging from 2,500 to 20 gamers. After surveying almost 400 World of Warcraft and company gamer lovers, Taylor said, “We found that gamers were often exhibiting many social behaviors at once: watching games, talking, drinking, and chatting online. Gaming didn’t eliminate social interaction, it supplemented it.” Of course considering that Taylor and company’s sole sampling was based on people who not only left the metaphorical — or literal — basement to go to a convention, but also felt comfortable enough to give in-depth interviews with strangers, the end results might be a little skewed. Still, this isn’t the only recent research that has aimed to disprove the slovenly gamer stereotype. [A 2013 German study of 2,500 gamers](http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/09/22/gamer-stereotypes-just-arent-true/), whittled down from an original sample of 50,000 people, found that: --- > “” --- Although people who gamed “all the time” did suffer. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/41931/study-gamers-not-loners-social/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/41931/study-gamers-not-loners-social/"},"headline":"Study Says Online Gamers Aren't Loners Who Lock Themselves In Their Basements Anymore","datePublished":"2014-03-31T20:12:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:08:19.115Z","description":"\"Gamers aren’t the antisocial basement-dwellers we see in pop culture stereotypes\"","url":"https://time.com/41931/study-gamers-not-loners-social/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet","study","Science topic","Gaming","online","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ec7728dbc41e1a6/69868823f983e7012e04d0c2/162536127.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ec7728dbc41e1a6/69868823f983e7012e04d0c2/162536127.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"162536127","caption":"162536127","creditText":"Nazra Zahri / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/41931/study-gamers-not-loners-social/","name":"Study Says Online Gamers Aren't Loners Who Lock Themselves In Their Basements Anymore"}}]}] ```