Racing Video Games May Lead to Real-Life Crashes
|
Men and women who play virtual driving games such as Grand Theft Auto are more likely to report engaging in hazardous driving and getting into accidents when the hit the road in real life, show German studies of 198 people.
In one study researchers had some subjects play driving games in which they had to "massively violate traffic rules (e.g., drive on the sidewalk, crash into other cars, drive at high speed)" while the rest of the subjects played neutral games. Those who had played the driving game reported greater risk-taking thoughts and feelings. A second study showed that men who played just one virtual racing game were faster to take risks on a computer simulation of real-life driving. On top of giving you one more reason to fear your fellow driver, the results make a convincing argument for "media priming," the idea that people depend on mental models in which learned feelings are activated by an associated stimulus. Press Release: VIRTUAL RACING GAMES LINKED TO RISK TAKING THOUGHTS, SELF-REPORTED AGGRESSIVE DRIVING AND RISKIER SIMULATED DRIVING FULL TEXT: Virtual Driving and Risk Taking: Do Racing Games Increase Risk-Taking Cognitions, Affect, and Behaviors? SHARE:
Posted In: Violence | Tags: Video Games | Driving | Crashes | Accidents | Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff on March 28, 2007 at 08:52 AM | Permalink |
AboutThis page contains a single entry from Psychology Briefs, the FindCounseling.com Blog. The previous post was Women Of All Sizes Feel Bad About Their Bodies After Viewing Models. The next post is Study Focuses On Our Lack Of Focus. Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the Psychology Research Archives. Subscribe              ATOM RSS |
