Racing video games cause reckless driving: study
Those who played the games most were more likely to report engaging in risky driving and getting in car accidents, research says.
The study by German researchers, published Sunday, examined the effect of games that feature realistic driving environments, with players often racing through city and suburban traffic.
"Driving actions in these games often include competitive and reckless driving, speeding and crashing into other cars or pedestrians, or performing risky stunts with the vehicle," the researchers wrote. "In short, most actions in racing games imply a very high risk of having an accident or severe crash in a highly realistic virtual road traffic environment."
The researchers first questioned 198 men and women. Those who played the games most often were more likely to report engaging in aggressive and risky driving and getting in auto accidents. Those who played these games less often reported driving more cautiously, the researchers said.
The researchers then studied 68 men and found that those who played even one racing game took more risks afterward in traffic situations on a computer simulator than those who played another type of game.
Then the researchers had 83 men play either a racing game or another type of game, and found that those who played the racing game reported more thoughts and feelings associated with taking risks than the others.
"Risk acceptance is one of the most prominent and important factors in the discussion of the origin of accidents caused by young drivers," said Joerg Kubitzki of the Allianz Center for Technology, which conducted the study along with researchers at Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians University.
The researchers cited previous research involving the "shooter" genre of games, in which players shoot at adversaries, that found an increase in aggressive thoughts and actions among players. But they said little had been known about the influence driving games might have on actual driving behavior of players.
"The question of age restrictions, legally or voluntary, should be discussed not only for "shooter" games but also for this kind of games, which have an impact on traffic safety," Kubitzki said.
The study appeared in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, published by the American Psychological Association (click here for a PDF of the article).