Comparison of Psychological and Cognitive Characteristics between Professional Internet Game Players and Professional Baseball Players

The esports industry is increasing in popularity and is now played at the professional level. We hypothesized that esports players may have a significant advantage over the general population in terms of psychological and cognitive characteristics, which may be similar to that of professional baseball players. We recruited three participant groups: esports players (n= 55), pro-baseball players (n= 57), and age- and sex-matched healthy comparison subjects (n= 60). We assessed psychological status using the Korean versions of Temperament and Character Inventory and State and Trait Anxiety Inventory and cognitive functions using the modified Tower of London, Emotional Perception, and Mental Rotation tests. Esports players had similar psychological characteristics to pro-baseball players (higher novelty seeking [p< 0.01 *, LATIN SMALL LETTER ENG = 0.818], self-directedness [p< 0.01 *, LATIN SMALL LETTER ENG = 0.757], and self-transcendence scores [p< 0.01 *, LATIN SMALL LETTER ENG = 0.853], and decreased state anxiety scores [p< 0.01 *, LATIN SMALL LETTER ENG = 0.808]), which differed from those of the general population. However, esports players showed higher working memory [p< 0.01 *, LATIN SMALL LETTER ENG = 0.823] and slower emotional perception than pro-baseball players [p< 0.01 *, LATIN SMALL LETTER ENG = 0.812]. In conclusion, esports and pro-baseball players had similar psychological but different cognitive characteristics.