IS PLAYING RACING VIDEO GAMES ASSOCIATED WITH STUNT DRIVING?

摘要

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among risky drivingattitudes, self-perceptions as a risky driver, playing of “drive’em up” (which rewarded players forfrequent traffic and other violations), and “circuit” racing video games and self-reported riskydriving through a web-based survey of a sample of car and racing club members. In particular,this study was interested in testing Fischer and colleagues’ [1-4] socio-cognitive model forunderstanding how racing video game playing is associated with risky driving self perceptions,attitudes and behaviours.Method: An Internet questionnaire was developed using the expert panel method and wasprimarily based on validated instruments or questions derived from other surveys. Thequestionnaire included: 1) attitudes regarding Ontario’s stunt driving legislation and street racing;2) self-perceptions as a risky driver scales; 3) playing of video games and 4) self-reported stuntdriving. Car club participants were invited to participate in the survey. A hierarchical multipleregression was performed considering self-reported stunt driving as the dependent variable,entering the following in the model: age (16-34, 35+) and driving exposure as control variablesin the first step; self-perceptions as a risky driver (Driver Thrilling Seeking and CompetitiveAttitude Toward Driving scales) in the second step; attitudes in the third step and playing“drive’em up” and “circuit” racing games in the last step in order to examine the effects of thepredictor variables on the dependent variable.Results: A total of 463 survey respondents were included in the analyses. The total modelexplained 36% of the variance. Specifically, the results showed higher self-reported stunt drivingfor respondents who reported driving more hours per week, scored higher on Driver ThrillSeeking and Competitive Attitude Toward Driving scales, reported more negative attitudestoward Ontario’s Stunt Driving legislation, reported more positive attitudes toward street racing and reported playing “drive’em up” video games more frequently. However, “circuit” videogames did not predict self-reported stunt drivingConclusions: These findings support Fischer and colleagues’ experimental studies in whichsensation seeking, attitudes and “drive’em up” street-racing games, but not “circuit” racinggames, are associated with increased risky driving behaviour.