It’s well known that the shooters at Columbine were avid players of the computer video game Doom. That the first-person shooter game enhanced their feelings of aggression has been proposed as one of the reasons for the attack by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold upon their fellow students.

German psychologists have completed some research that leads them to believe that virtual racing games may also increase aggression and risk-taking in real-life driving situations.

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.

When 83 men were assigned to play either virtual racing games or neutral games, those that played the racing games reported a higher accessibility to thoughts about risk-taking. The researchers state that this could lead to high-risk behavior on the road.

Because children also play these games, the concern is that they will be conditioned to higher rates of risk-taking when it is their turn to get behind the wheel.

American Psychological Association