Virtual racing seems to lead to aggressive driving
Mar 27, 2007 - 8:18:26 AM
, Reviewed by: Dr. Himanshu Tyagi
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âOur results pose the question whether playing racing games leads to accidents in real-life road traffic.â
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Level of Evidence
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3b - Individual Case-Control Study
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Key Points of this article
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Playing racing games leads to riskier driving
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Less frequent virtual racing was associated with more cautious driving.
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Main results
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The studies make both theoretical and practical contributions. First, the results support social-cognitive explanations of media priming effects, in which people built up mental models â in this case, of aggressive thoughts and feelings â easily triggered by a learned stimulus. That inner aggression is then the starting point for aggressive behaviors. The authors also showed that âpositively framedâ (the games are depicted as exciting and fun; they're also very popular) risky media content activates thoughts and feelings of arousal and excitement that are linked to increased risk taking.
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American Psychological Association
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The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 145,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.
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By APA,
[RxPG] Psychologists have taken the âmedia primingâ effects of popular video console and PC-based games on the road, finding that virtual racing seems to lead to aggressive driving and a propensity for risk taking. Extending prior findings on how aggressive virtual-shooter games increase aggression-related thoughts, feelings and behaviors, researchers at Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians University and the Allianz Center for Technology found that of 198 men and women, those who play more virtual car-racing games were more likely to report that they drive aggressively and get in accidents. Less frequent virtual racing was associated with more cautious driving.
The findings appear in the March issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, which is published by the American Psychological Association.
Linking media priming effects â the way virtual aggression can lead to the real thing -- to behavior, a second study found that men who played even one virtual racing game subsequently took significantly higher risks in critical traffic situations on a computer simulator than did men who played a neutral game. Sixty-eight men were in this study.
Finally, the researchers assigned 83 men to play either typical racing or neutral games on a Sony Playstation. In the racing games, say the authors, âTo win, participants had to massively violate traffic rules (e.g., drive on the sidewalk, crash into other cards, drive at high speed).â Those who raced subsequently reported a significantly higher accessibility of thoughts and feelings linked to risk-taking than did those who played a neutral game.
Together, the findings suggest that playing racing games leads to riskier driving. The studies also highlight mediating factors, such as how the racing games prompt greater risk-taking thoughts and feelings, which may then result in higher-risk behavior.
The studies make both theoretical and practical contributions. First, the results support social-cognitive explanations of media priming effects, in which people built up mental models â in this case, of aggressive thoughts and feelings â easily triggered by a learned stimulus. That inner aggression is then the starting point for aggressive behaviors. The authors also showed that âpositively framedâ (the games are depicted as exciting and fun; they're also very popular) risky media content activates thoughts and feelings of arousal and excitement that are linked to increased risk taking.
Second, the authors observe that on a practical level, âOur results pose the question whether playing racing games leads to accidents in real-life road traffic.â Based on their findings and prior research, they assert that, âPlaying racing games could provoke unsafe driving. ⦠Practitioners in the field of road traffic safety should bear in mind the possibility that racing games indeed make road traffic less safe, not least because game players are mostly young adults, acknowledged as the highest accident-race group.â
Given that children start playing these games on average at age 10 (based on previous research by co-author Jörg Kubitzki), the researchers are concerned that racing games may instill risk-taking attitudes that lead to unsafe driving when children grow up and get behind the wheel.
Original research article:
http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/xap13122.pdf 
Publication:
Article: âVirtual Driving and Risk Taking: Do Racing Games Increase Risk-Taking Cognitions, Affect, and Behaviors?â Peter Fischer, PhD, Ludwig-Maximilians University; Jörg Kubitzki, PhD, Allianz Center for Technology; Stephenie Guter, PhD and Dieter Frey, PhD, Ludwig-Maximilians University; Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Vol. 13, No. 1.
On the web:
content.apa.org/journals/xap/13/1/22.html
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About Dr. Himanshu Tyagi
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This news story has been reviewed by Dr. Himanshu Tyagi before its publication on RxPG News website. Dr. Himanshu Tyagi, MBBS is the founder editor and manager for RxPG News. In this position he is responsible for content development and overall website and editorial management functions. His areas of special interest are psychological therapies and evidence based journalism.
RxPG News is committed to promotion and implementation of Evidence Based Medical Journalism in all channels of mass media including internet.
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