Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Video Racing Games May Spur Risky Driving

Posted by Hemos on from the get-out-of-my-way dept.

kiwimate writes "A study concludes that people who play car racing games may be more likely to take risks and drive aggressively when driving in real life. According to the article, "The study appeared in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, published by the American Psychological Association"." Just because after I play Grand Theft Auto I want to ram other cars does not mean I'm a worse driver. Honest.

11 of 428 comments (clear)

  1. Arrg! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is a pretty stupid assertion.

    Wouldn't the people most likely to enjoy this genre be predisposed to this behaviour?

    Why don't these "researchers" understand the importance of self-selection?!?

    1. Re:Arrg! by fbjon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But doesn't that just mean that the formal driving sim was seen more as a game, instead of a sim? I.e. the "it's only a game" though bleeds into the normally serious situation. They should do real-life driving for comparison instead.

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
  2. Who plays racing games? Teenage boys? by khasim · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And who, according to insurance companies, is the riskiest group? Teenage boys.

    Next study! People who date teenage girls are risky drivers!

    1. Re:Who plays racing games? Teenage boys? by garcia · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And who, according to insurance companies, is the riskiest group? Teenage boys.

      I still find myself wanting to take turns faster and change lanes as if no one was really there (no signaling, etc) after playing a few games of Gran Turismo and I'm 28.

      Generally I have more control over this impulse than a 16 to 19 year old might have but still the impulse is there. As the numbers of individuals that still play video games continues to increase into the 20/30 age range it *could* have an effect on the driving styles of those individuals past the "teenage boy risky group" you mention.

    2. Re:Who plays racing games? Teenage boys? by CmdrGravy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In a driving simulator though, if someone put me in one of those I'd feel no responsibility to drive sensibly since I would have no worries about killing people or dying like you have on real roads. In effect it's just a more boring driving game.

  3. Alternate equally cogent headline by Thaelon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People who play racing car games may be more likely to be seagulls.

    --

    Question everything

  4. Makes me careful by 4D6963 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Crashing constantly in GTA actually makes me more careful by fear of having as many accidents as in GTA

    --
    You just got troll'd!
  5. In related news... by LordEd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    watching 'care bears' for an extended period of time will make you a more caring and sensitive person.

    Any time i see the 'video games made me do it' excuse, I think that the appropriate sentence should be forced to watch 'Barney' for an entire month. Since the person is so easily influenced, this should work perfectly for rehabilitation.

  6. It's all about GTA by PIPBoy3000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I played GTA pretty seriously for awhile. The sense of freedom was amazing.

    When I first played (and when my wife first played), we tried to obey the traffic laws and stay in the proper lane. After realizing how pointless that was, we were driving on sidewalks, ignoring pedestrians, and laughing with glee when running red lights.

    Your brain is very good at unlearning old skills and relearning new ones. The catch is that when doing very similar things, it's easy for one set of skills to bleed into another. Switching from throwing a whiffle ball to a softball requires a period of adjustment. Driving like an insane maniac to a law abiding citizen requires a degree of concentration.

    The vast majority of people will likely use caution, focus, and not have any problem at all. Some folks, however, may have difficulty making the switch. Ban all driving games? That seems a bit silly. Banning cell phones or music in cars would likely have a more concrete effect.

    1. Re:It's all about GTA by nine-times · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Honestly, seriously: there was a moment for me when, after playing a whole lot of GTA3, I was driving around and found myself thinking, "I'm tired of this car. I should go get that guy's car." Not very consciously, I mean. I didn't literally think those words I just typed, but I was driving, saw a nicer car than the one I was driving, and for a split second it went through my head that I should pull him over, yank him the driver out of his car, and drive away leaving my own car behind.

      Of course, I didn't actually *do* anything. I just laughed a little to myself, thought, "that's awesome" and kept driving.

      I'm not in favor of censoring video games or anything. You don't really know what activities are going to do for people. Maybe playing football would make one guy feel accustomed to violence and more likely to hit someone, while it might give another guy some sort of an outlet which prevents him from being violent. The government shouldn't take over responsibility for deciding which experiences are appropriate for people to have.

      On the other hand, let's not pretend that this stuff has no effect. If I play solitaire enough, my mind starts sorting visual information differently. After playing Zelda for a long time, I look at the world differently. It's all having an effect, and you know, maybe sometimes some games have a bad effect on a person's psyche. So, if you're a parent of a teenager who you think can't handle driving safely after playing GTA, don't let them play GTA. Better yet, just don't let them drive at all. I'll tell you something, we are far too insistent that people drive everywhere, even when they're bad drivers, and it's bad all around.

  7. Arrrgggh! Please stop saying that! by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Say it with me: Correlation does not imply causation.

    Yes, it does!

    What it doesn't do is prove causation. Of course it implies causation. Then you investigate that implication.