The next time you’re stopped at a red light, and a young driver knocks into your car from behind, take pity: He may just have played too much Grand Theft Auto or Mario Kart. People who play driving-themed computer games like those are much more likely to take risks on real roads, say researchers at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich.
In the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Experimental Psychology, the researchers report that Grand Theft Auto players are uncharacteristically aggressive drivers and that the game made men, but not women, take more risks when using a driving-simulation program.
But the studies, also reported in the Telegraph, have a certain chicken-or-the-egg quality about them: Do video games really encourage reckless driving, or do they just appeal to the kind of drivers who might be fairly aggressive anyway? —Brock Read
