Driving-based computer games like the series may be encouraging adolescents to drive recklessly when they take to the roads for real, a study of teenagers鈥� attitudes to road risks suggests.
With around 1000 people under the age of 25 killed on the world鈥檚 roads every day, at the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) in Belgium wanted to find out if simple racing games and more reckless 鈥渄rive-鈥檈m-up鈥� games might encourage real-world speeding and risk-taking.
She suspected it might, noting that 鈥渟ome drive-鈥檈m-ups give you points for driving into cars or even pedestrians鈥�. Drink-driving generally does not feature in games, so she expected gaming would not inspire this kind of behaviour.
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Beullens, working with colleagues Keith Roe and Jan Van den Bulck, sent questionnaires to around 2000 Belgian 16 and 17-year-olds, both male and female, asking them how often they played racing and drive-鈥檈m-up games.
Risky behaviour
Two years later, she questioned those who had gained driving licences on how often they were willing to take risks in traffic, plus their attitudes to key safety issues like speeding and drink-driving. In Belgium, people cannot get a driving licence until they are 18.
鈥淚鈥檒l never know if they answered truthfully. But other studies suggest people respond honestly when assured their data is anonymised, as this was,鈥� Beullens says.
The team found no statistically significant link between drink-driving at 18 and earlier exposure to games, but reckless attitudes to both speeding and risky driving were significantly linked with having played driving games at the age of 16 and 17.
The Belgian team add that their statistical model controlled for aggressive and sensation-seeking personalities, ruling that out as a factor in their results.
Safety campaigns
If the results can be firmed up in further studies, Beullens thinks it strengthens the case for safe driving campaigns targeted at young drivers immersed in gaming culture.
The driving game research echoes work in the US linking violent computer games with aggressive attitudes. In 2005, psychologists at the University of Missouri-Columbia demonstrated for the first time that users of violent games showed diminished responses to images of real-life violence.
However, other studies suggest that computer games can have positive influences: there is some evidence that games can improve eyesight, while some titles might help treat debilitating phobias or even .
The games industry maintains that the influence of the variety of screen-based media people are exposed to needs analysis before any blame is laid at their door.
A spokeswoman for the UK-based , the trade association representing computer games firms, notes that Beullens鈥檚 team admits it has not demonstrated a causal link between driving games and risk-taking on the roads.
ELSPA suggests other influences may be at work. 鈥淲e need to explore how adolescents are influenced by a range of media,鈥� she says.
Beullens is already doing just that. In as-yet-unpublished work, she and her colleagues are studying the link between violent action movies and teenagers鈥� later driving behaviour. She hopes to report on that in mid-2011.
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