Video Games Linked To Reckless Driving

An anonymous reader writes "'A new study suggests video games that involve reckless driving may play out in real life. Researchers say their data should not be taken lightly since car accidents are the number one cause of death for teenagers.' Just a case of video games being used as a convenient scapegoat, or could there be some truth to this?"

Comments

Kudos

[Lord Grey]

From the last paragraph of TFA:

The findings do not directly link playing video games to reckless driving. They only show an association. Researchers say the impact of playing games like "Grand Theft Auto" is minimal.

Bingo. Driving games could cause reckless driving in real life. Or people who drive recklessly enjoy driving games. Reckless go-kart racing could also be associated with both games and automobile driving, but that wasn't the focus of the study.

I'm glad TFA admitted that one isn't necessarily the cause of the other, thereby bypassing the whole causation != correlation argument. Kudos for that.