Cities: Skylines is being used in a psychology study to research complex problem-solving abilities and personality disorders

Hope Bellingham

27 April 2023 at 7:49 am·2-min read

Psychologists have used city builder Cities: Skylines to research the link between complex problem-solving abilities and personality disorders.

As shared by Psypost (via Frontiers in Psychology) a study performed by Ulrike Kipman, Professor of Education Sciences, investigated the relationship between complex problem-solving abilities and personality disorders. To do this, those taking part in the study were tasked with playing city builder Cities: Skylines - a game in which players will develop and manage a city whilst sticking to constraints like a budget.

According to the source above, participants were made up of 242 adults with personality and depressive disorders, whose ages ranged between 17 and 48 years old. The results of the study showed that: "Participants with more pronounced schizotypal, histrionic, and depressive personality traits were less successful in playing Cities: Skylines i.e., in complex problem-solving."

The research showed that participants with these types of personality disorders "were more likely to fail the game altogether" and that "participants with more pronounced dependent and paranoid personality traits were also less successful in the game, but this association was weaker."

If you're interested in learning more about this study, we suggest reading the full article via the Frontiers in Psychology link above, as it explores much more than just the video game aspect of the research - whereas we're only really here to talk about the Cities: Skylines part.

Speaking of the Paradox sim, earlier today it was revealed that the final expansion for the first Cities: Skylines game is set to release next month. Although this is bittersweet news, it actually comes with a silver lining as it means developer Colossal Order can begin focusing more on Cities: Skylines 2 - which is due to release sometime this year.

If you're looking for something similar to play in the meantime, take a look at our best simulator games list.

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