Video Game Conditioning Spills Over Into Real Life

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."

Comments

Uhh... huh.

[bistromath007]

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"

Re:Uhh... huh.

[Hal_Porter]

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.

Weird Assumptions

[pete-classic]

It seems very strange to suppose that intentionally creating an association between visual and taste stimuli would magically not work, just because a video game is involved.

I mean, people have been learning things on television screens for decades. And projection screens for decades before that. What on Earth is surprising, or even interesting, about showing that putting a game controller in a person's hand doesn't thwart this method of learning?

-Peter

Re:Weird Assumptions

[MozeeToby]

I think the assumption here is that the gamer will identify with the product if it is associated with his 'team' in the game. Having the same advertising for two products, one associated with your team and another associated with the enemy makes you want the one associated with the 'good guys' more. Essentially, they're saying that connecting your product with the enemy will actually weaken its percieved value.

I suspect the army already knew this (or at least suspected it, since it is pretty logical). Look at the America's Army game they put out and you see a good example. No matter which side you are on, you are always drawn as a US soldier and the enemy is always drawn as a terrorist, even if you switch sides in the middle of a fight.

Re:Weird Assumptions

[A. B3ttik]

What they really need to do is see if people can learn things done -entirely- within Video Games.

Like what if in a Pepsi/Coke video game, Coke gives you Health and Pepsi hurts you... would these people start preferring Coke over Pepsi? Or maybe there would be some reverse psychology where since people -can't- have Pepsi in the game world, they will intrinsically want it more in the real world.

The mind is complicated, but I'm sure that, yes, connections are formed when playing video games just as they are anywhere else.

Video Game is just the vehicle

[stewbacca]

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

Re:Video Game is just the vehicle

[$RANDOMLUSER]

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"

not surprising

[jm4]

The shouldn't come as any surprise. Computer simulations are routinely used for training and conditioning in a variety of situations from flight training to military applications.

Jersey...

[darkdaedra]

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

Sample Size?

[ChinggisK]

Twenty-two volunteers who played a cycling game

Good to see they're using a nice large group of test subjects.

Re:Sample Size?

[SQLGuru]

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

misleading

[danlip]

Even though they were playing a video game they were being given real-life swigs of a drink while they played. So what the subjects were actually doing was building an association between a real-life experience and an image on the screen - which is completely different from building an association from nothing but a video game.

GTA

[damonlab]

Grand Theft Auto taught me that if you shoot the hooker, you can get your money back.

And on the other hand...

[Aladrin]

On the other hand, my eye-hand coordination often amazes people. And my locational/directional skills are quite good as well. None of the rest of my family can claim either of those.

In addition, I've learned quite a bit about history, politics, art, language... You name it.

So yeah, experiencing things makes you learn from them. No big surprise there. But don't go forgetting that learning can be both good and bad.

Re:Great, more product placement in future games

[daem0n1x]

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

Re:Great, more product placement in future games

[philspear]

First you bitch that you want the virtual worlds to be as realistic and lifelike as possible.

Then, you bitch that there are now ads in your virtual world, which of course is nothing like the real world(yes, that is sarcasm you smell)

What? Who wants games to be as "realistic and lifelike as possible?" I want GRAPHICS to be as realistic as possible, the actual content and gameplay can and should take liberties. Example: mirror's edge would be a terrible game if you randomly landed wrong, broke your femur, and had to spend months of real game time doing therapy before you could continue. Rock band would suck if you had to spend hours upon hours practicing, only for the band to break up and the game to be over after one gig. Super mario bros would have sold zero copies if the italian plumbers had to face a clogged toilet rather than saving the princess.

Jesus man, what kind of boring ass games do you play? Games are SUPPOSED to be unrealistic in that they take the boring or annoying (read; ADS) out.

(Note that if you were joking, little too subtle there, and the insightful mod didn't help.)

Half-life 2

[DoofusOfDeath]

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.

It's how it affects you, not if

[Temujin_12]

I'm tired of the "X/Y/Z doesn't affect me" mantra. Everything affects you.

Does reading slashdot 12 times a day affect you? Yes.

Would reading the entire constitution of the US everyday affect you? Yes.

Does skipping a night of sleep affect you? Yes.

Does holding down a full time job affect you? Yes.

Does playing video games affect you? Yes.

Everything you engage in affects you. It's called being human. It's not a question of whether something affects you, it's a question of whether you are mature enough to recognise HOW it effects you and make appropriate adjustments if necessary.

The insistence that you are somehow superior to every aspect of life and can only be affected if you allow it is just immature arrogance.