By Adam Hartley
More than sports titles and first person shooters claim scientists
Racing games lead to higher levels of aggression in players than shooters claim scientists
Scientists from Huddersfield University claim that racing games cause more aggression in players than other genres such as shooters and sports titles.
Dr Simon Goodson and Sarah Pearson monitored 30 people's heart rate, breathing, brain activity and so on as they were playing three Xbox 360 games - Project Gotham Racing, an unnamed first-person shooter and "a 3D table tennis game".
PGR was found to cause the greatest change in heart rate and brain activity, while the unnamed FPS caused the least. (Of course, it could simply be the case that the unnamed FPS was simply not a very good game, while Bizarre's mighty Project Gotham is sure to get anybody's heart racing!)
"Previous researchers have made sweeping generalisations about the nature of videogames. This study is one of the first to use one of the latest games consoles that have a much higher level of realism," claimed the researchers.
"Surprisingly the results showed that the driving game made participants more agitated and aggressive than the game with graphic violence. Given the high levels of realism in modern games a re-evaluation of the relationship between videogames and violence is needed."
The findings will be discussed at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference, in Brighton this month.
