Teens who play mature-rated, risk-glorifying video games have an increased chance of becoming reckless drivers who experience a high number of police stops, automobile accidents, and willingness to drink and drive.

Jay G. Hull, PhD, of Dartmouth College, and leading researcher, said:

“Most parents would probably be disturbed to learn that we observed that this type of game play was more strongly associated with teen drivers being pulled over by the police than their parenting practices. With motor vehicle accidents the No. 1 cause of adolescent deaths, popular games that increase reckless driving may constitute even more of a public health issue than the widely touted association of video games and aggression.”

This study supports research in 2011 by scientists at Brigham Young University, indicating that violent scenes in TV and video games increase aggression levels.

The current research was a longitudinal study published in American Psychological Association’s (APA) journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture and involved over 5,000 U.S. adolescents, aged 14 years at the start of the study, who were asked to answer a series of questions in 4 cycles via telephone interviews over a four year period.

Results from the first interview showed 50% of the teenagers had their parents’ permission to play mature-rated games, and among those:

  • 32% had played Spiderman II
  • 12% had played Manhunt
  • 58% had played Grand Theft Auto III

The team found that those video games were associated with an increase in sensation seeking, self-reported risky driving, and rebelliousness.

Higher rankings in rebelliousness and sensation seeking were found to be directly linked to automobile accidents, willingness to drink and drive, being stopped by the police, and risky driving habits.

Between the 2nd and 3rd interviews, subjects who admitted to being pulled over by the cops increased from 11% to 21%, and those who caused a car accident went from 8% to 14%.

When the teens were about 16 years old, 25% answered “yes” in the 3rd interview when asked if they had unsafe driving habits.

In the final interview, at age 18, 90% said “yes” to at least one of the same risky driving habits:

  • 78% admitted to speeding
  • 71% to speeding through yellow lights
  • 27% to not using a seatbelt
  • 26% to tailgating
  • 25% to weaving in and out of traffic
  • 23% to failure to yield
  • 20% to running red lights
  • 19% to ignoring stop signs
  • 13% to crossing a double line

In order to discover the teenagers’ levels of sensation seeking and rebelliousness, they were given a 4-point scale to rate themselves following statements, such as “I like to do dangerous things” and “I get in trouble at school.”

The experts adjusted for factors that might affect the reliability of the results, including age, gender, parent income and education, race, and parenting styles described as warm and responsive or demanding.

Hull explained:

“Playing these kinds of video games could also result in these adolescents developing personalities that reflect the risk-taking, rebellious characters they enact in the games and that could have broader consequences that apply to other risky behaviors such as drinking and smoking.”

Some participants dropped out of the study, as expected in longitudinal surveys. For the second interview, 4,575 answered questions; 3,653 for the third; 2,718 for the fourth.

Since the information is derived from self-interviews, the explanation of the causes of their driving habits was speculative, the researchers added.

“At the same time, because the study began when the participants were playing video games but were too young to drive, it is clear that the video game exposure preceded the risky driving,” Hull said.

Written by Sarah Glynn