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Video Game Conditioning Spills Over Into Real Life

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the here-we-go-again dept.

doug141 writes "Lessons learned in video games may transcend computers, PlayStations and Wiis. New research suggests that virtual worlds sway real-life choices. Twenty-two volunteers who played a cycling game learned to associate one team's jersey with a good flavored drink and another team's jersey with a bad flavored drink. Days later, 3/4 of the subjects avoided the same jersey in a real-world test. Marketers and lawyers will take note."

17 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. jersey sponsors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    did one jersey say "coke" and the other "pepsi?"

    1. Re:jersey sponsors by DanTheStone · · Score: 2, Funny

      The jerseys appear to be unrelated to real corporate logos. And if anyone's actually wondering, one drink was juice and the other was salty tea. After reading the article, I'm curious what three-quarters of 22 people is.

    2. Re:jersey sponsors by Ihmhi · · Score: 2, Funny

      So that's, what... 16 people and a midget? An amputee?

      --
      Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
  2. Uhh... huh. by bistromath007 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can really only conceive of this as somebody trying to drink a cycling team's jersey that has been stuffed into a glass with the subtitle "PIC UNRELATED"

    1. Re:Uhh... huh. by Rei · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, people pay attention to Sony.

      Na naa na nana nana na na, Katamari Damacy...

      --
      Fox: "I think we should call it... your grave!" Cast: "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"
    2. Re:Uhh... huh. by Hal_Porter · · Score: 5, Funny

      It reminds me of an 80's joke. If video games influenced behaviour then kids that grew up playing Pacman would spend their freetime running around rooms, eating pills and listening to repetive music.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    3. Re:Uhh... huh. by seidojohn · · Score: 2, Funny

      I've always wondered where rave culture came from.

  3. Jersey... by darkdaedra · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've avoided Jersey all my life. No news there.

  4. Re:Great, more product placement in future games by youngdev · · Score: 3, Funny

    I disagree. I think it would be cool to quest for the great Coca Cola of the mythical Eastern elves in war craft. Maybe the new armor in the next expansion will be branded by Nike. Then they could release real live limited edition collector versions of in game products. I see this being something you game nerds could really dig on.

  5. Re:Video Game is just the vehicle by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Funny

    This has nothing to do with "lessons learned from video games" and says everything about the power of marketing.

    "Every time a dog salivates, a behaviorist must ring a bell"

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  6. Re:Great, more product placement in future games by SQLGuru · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think Under Armor would be a better tie in than Nike......

  7. Re:Sample Size? by SQLGuru · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's all of the people that would actually PLAY a cycling game. Now, if you mounted lasers on the handlebars......

  8. Re:Great, more product placement in future games by aeskdar · · Score: 1, Funny

    The last thing the videogames industry needs to every game festooned with ads for condoms the gamers would never use in the first place.

    fixed that for you

  9. Re:Great, more product placement in future games by daem0n1x · · Score: 4, Funny

    I like ads in games, but only if I can shoot them.

  10. Half-life 2 by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 4, Funny

    I remember after HL2 first came out and I'd been playing it a lot. I was walking through my parking lot at work, a helicopter flew nearby. I found myself unconsciously looking for places to hide and estimating when I could get a good firing angle on it.

  11. Re:Weird Assumptions by PaganRitual · · Score: 2, Funny

    Surely if there is one thing that every gamer of more than a few years (months? weeks?) has learnt is that everything is different when video games are involved.

    Games that require quick reflexes can't don't improve those reflexes, but a sport that requires quick reflexes can improve them. Games that require strategic thinking won't improve your abilities in this area, but reading a book on war will help your strategic thinking. Playing games as a hobby and having background knowledge of genres or developers say, makes you a no-life loser, but watching movies as a hobby and having background knowledge of genres and directors makes you a movie buff.

    Everything is different when it comes to games. This shouldn't be a suprise anymore.

  12. Re:Weird Assumptions by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 2, Funny

    And this, folks, is perhaps the single best explanation of what's wrong with two-party politics. Listen closely to *any* political commentary in the USA, and you'll see this effect at work. Arguments become talking points about positioning sides rather than the merits of the arguments.

    You sound like one of those God-hating, baby-killing, pot-smoking, terrorist-appeasing liberal Democrats.

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.