Michael Gallagher, president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), has challenged an Iowa State University study which found that 8.5 percent of American gamers aged 8-18 showed multiple signs of addiction.
“It has come to my attention... that the findings and conclusions of the study prepared by Dr. Douglas Gentile, and published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, were based on flawed methodology,” Gallagher said in a letter to the publication, which was forwarded to media outlets. “This raises serious doubts about the validity of findings."
Gallagher goes on to point out that Gentile conceded in an interview that he was unaware that the sample group for the study was not randomly chosen, but instead comprised of a 'convenience' sample of individuals who agreed to participate in the survey.
“As you are likely aware, such a sample is not truly representative of a national population group. Thus the results cannot be projected onto the broader population of children in this country. And the sampling error of plus or minus 3% that Dr. Gentile cited in the study is also meaningless.
“In his article, Dr. Gentile wrote that his findings are “nationally representative within 3%.” This claim is not verifiable given the nature of the sample population… Because of the composition of the group studied, neither the overall figure, nor the cited sampling error is supported by the data Dr. Gentile presented.
“It would be unfair and misleading for a respected publication to leave on the record such knowingly mistaken information,” Gallagher concluded.