Downloaded from http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/ on November 16, 2015 - Published by group.bmj.com
Original article
Effects of racing games on risky driving behaviour, and the significance of personality and physiological data Mingming Deng,1,2 Alan H S Chan,3 Feng Wu,1 Jun Wang4 1
School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China 2 School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an, China 3 Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, KowloonTong, Hong Kong 4 School of Information, Xi’an University of Finance and Economics, Xi’an, China Correspondence to Mingming Deng, School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, No 28, Xianning West Road, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710049, China [email protected] Received 9 June 2014 Revised 13 October 2014 Accepted 8 December 2014 Published Online First 24 December 2014
ABSTRACT Background Racing games have emerged as topselling products in the video and computer game industry. The effect of playing racing games on the inclination of gamers to take risks has been investigated. Method Two experiments were conducted. In experiment 1, the impact of personality traits on the effects of playing racing games on risk-taking inclination was examined. The Vienna Test System, which includes the Eysenck Personality Profile Test and the Vienna RiskTaking Test, was used to measure risk-taking inclination and risk-taking while driving. Experiment 2 was designed and conducted to analyse the effects of different intensity levels of car racing games on risktaking inclination, and to study the relationship between physiological data and risk-taking inclination. Physiological data on skin conductance, heart rate and blood pressure were measured with the NeuroDyne System. Results Participants playing a racing game were more inclined to take risks in critical road traffic situations than those playing a neutral game. The adventurousness dimension of the Eysenck Personality Profile Test correlated significantly positively with risk-taking inclination. More importantly, the effect of the intensity level of a racing game on risk-taking inclination was significant. The higher the intensity level of the racing game, the higher the risk-taking inclination while driving. The effect of intensity level of the racing game on skin conductance was significantly positive. Skin conductance correlated significantly positively with risktaking inclination. Conclusions The effect of playing racing games on risk-taking inclination is linked to personality and physiological data. Some recommendations are proposed as a result of this study for racing game management.
INTRODUCTION
To cite: Deng M, Chan AHS, Wu F, et al. Inj Prev 2015;21:238–244. 238
Over the past few years, virtual driving and racing games have emerged as top-selling products in the video and computer game industry.1–3 Anderson and Bushman4 proposed the general aggression model (GAM) for understanding the effects of violent media and reported that playing racing games may increase the aggressive behaviour of young people. GAM involves a multistage process by which personal and situational input variables such as recent exposure to violent media lead to aggressive behaviour by influencing several related internal states (eg, cognition, arousal).4–7 In line with the predictions of GAM, Fischer et al8 suggested that cognition, affect and behaviours related to increased risk-taking may be activated by the
playing of racing games. They analysed the effect of playing violent games on the driving-related risktaking inclination of gamers and demonstrated that risky media content (as provided by racing games) activated cognitions and feelings of arousal and excitement that were positively related to increased risk-taking, which in turn could lead to actual increased risk-taking in simulated critical road traffic situations. A later study by Fischer et al1 reported that the reason why video racing games increased risk-taking in critical road traffic situations was that the racing games made the player actively break traffic rules, which led to a more positive evaluation of reckless driving and increased self-perception of being a reckless driver. The study by Beullens et al9 indicated that video game playing was an important aspect of adolescent lifestyle and should not be neglected when examining traffic-related risk-taking. Behaviours considered to be risky driving include speeding, tailgating, overtaking on the wrong side, running red lights, not using a seat belt, driving without a licence,10 and talking on mobile phones without using hand-free accessories.11 Risk-taking in road traffic was associated with an increased chance of injury or death.12–15 It has been shown that Chinese drivers exhibit various risky behaviours on the road, and many traffic incidents in China have resulted from risky driving.16 17 In 2010, there were 3 906 164 traffic incidents, in which 65 225 people died and 254 075 others were injured. About 40% of these incidents resulted from risky driving.18 Risky driving is associated with other healthcompromising behaviours and mental health factors.19 In many studies of risky driving, the Vienna Risk-Taking Test was used to evaluate the risk-taking behaviour of the participants.20 21 It is a widely accepted and standardised measure for assessing an individual’s willingness to take risks in various road traffic situations.1 2 20 The theoretical background for the test is provided by Wilde’s theory of risk homoeostasis, which postulates that people at any moment of time compare the amount of risk they perceive with their target level of risk and will adjust their behaviour in an attempt to eliminate any discrepancies between the two.22 Risk-taking in driving is usually exhibited by drivers based on their assessments of resources that appear inadequate or limited (anticipated delay, low level of fuel, limited visibility, etc) with respect to conditions for achieving the objective of failurefree driving. It is also related to an individual’s psychological and/or physiological states, which are more or less exacerbated by excitation or
Deng M, et al. Inj Prev 2015;21:238–244. doi:10.1136/injuryprev-2014-041328
Downloaded from http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/ on November 16, 2015 - Published by group.bmj.com
Original article despondency.23 Evidence from physiology has suggested that physiological data contribute to the understanding of the users’ state, reflecting the promptness of reactions of the autonomic nervous system.24 In a video game study, Lin and Hu25 found that physiological data correlated with task performance data, and a decrease in task performance level was associated with an increase in normalised skin conductivity (SC). Heart rate (HR) is a popular indicator for measuring mental effort. Generally, the more mental effort that has to be spent, the higher the average HR.26 Brookhuis et al27 measured participants’ HR in a study exploring the effect of the driver support system on mental workload in simulated driving, and found that a participant’s HR while driving with the support system was significantly lower than when driving without the support system. Blood pressure (BP) is another physiological variable that has been analysed in driving game studies. Fischer et al1 measured participants’ BP to analyse their arousal while playing racing games and found that the BP of racing game players was significantly higher than that of neutral game players. Arousal has been shown to be positively associated with inclination to take risks after being involved with risk-promoting media content (eg, racing game).8 28 Thus, BP is a useful indicator of the level of risk-taking inclination of drivers while driving. For examining psychological aspects, there are some instruments that measure individual personality traits. One of the most popular is the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) developed by Eysenck and Eysenck.29 The EPQ has been used to investigate the relationship between personality and incidents in coal mining,30 driving,31 and aviation industries.32 33 It has been widely used in many countries, including English-speaking countries—for example, New Zealand34—and non-English-speaking countries—for example, Greece35 and Germany.36 The EPQ has three main dimensions: extraversion, emotionality and adventurousness.21 30 Luczak and Tarnowski31 demonstrated that the EPQ can be used as a screening test for special-risk groups of drivers (drivers who have caused crashes, drivers engaging in drink- or drug-driving, drivers scoring more than the 24-penalty-point limit). Li et al32 measured pilots with the EPQ, and the results indicated that adventurousness and age of pilot were helpful in predicting their incident proneness. Chu et al30 analysed the relationship between work injuries of coal miners and their personality traits and mental health, and concluded that adventurousness and extraversion were risk factors for work injuries, while emotionality was not. The Eysenck Personality Profiler (EPP)37 was a direct development of the EPQ. More recently, the EPP has been used to measure extraversion, emotionality and adventurousness.21 38 Aneks39 showed that certain configurations of temperament and personality factors can constitute special road crash risk factors—for example, the three attributes (extraversion, emotionality and adventurousness) of the EPQ may relate to such special risk factors. From these existing studies, it seems reasonable to assume that the three attributes, extraversion, emotionality and adventurousness, of the EPQ will affect risk-taking inclinations in driving. A comprehensive review of the literature indicated that only a few studies1 8 9 28 have examined the effects of playing racing games on risk-taking inclination, and no studies have focused on the impact of personality traits on the effects of playing racing games on inclination to take risks. Furthermore, only a few studies have measured the BP of gamers in order to analyse arousal after game playing.1 4 No studies have analysed the relationship between physiological data, such as SC and HR, and the risk-taking inclination of racing game players. Therefore, this study attempts to fill some of the gaps in our understanding Deng M, et al. Inj Prev 2015;21:238–244. doi:10.1136/injuryprev-2014-041328
of the impact of personality traits on the effect of playing racing games on the inclination to take risks (experiment 1), and to analyse the impact of different intensity levels of racing games on risk-taking inclination, and the relationship between physiological data and the risk-taking inclination of racing game players (experiment 2). In the present study, the effect of playing racing games on driving risk was analysed and compared with that of playing neutral games on driving risk. Also, the effect of violent racing games on driving risk was analysed and compared with that of common racing games. Racing games and neutral games might differentially affect driving risk, because racing games increase the accessibility of thoughts that are positively related to risk-taking, while neutral games do not. Violent racing games and common racing games might similarly affect driving risk because they both have violent media content in the context of driving.
EXPERIMENT 1 Participants The participants were 40 students (32 men and 8 women; age range 21–33 years; M=22.80, SD=2.55) recruited at Xi’an Jiaotong University. They were asked whether they would be willing to participate in a study dealing with risk-taking while driving. They were informed of the objectives and details of the study and gave informed consent before the experiment started. None of them were heavy video gamers (more than 30 h of play per week). Each participant was given a reward of 10 Yuan for participating in the study.
Instruments Game platform A simulated car game on a Sony racing game platform was used (figure 1). The participants played a car racing game which was a type of ‘time trial game’. This racing game belongs to the type of games called ‘circuit racing’ games, which have been discussed by Fischer et al.8 For the neutral game, a computer poker solitaire game was selected.
Vienna EPP Test The Vienna Test System (VTS; Schufried Test Instruments) was used in experiment 1. It consists of powerful basic software, a battery of 60 individual computer-aided tests and input devices that can be added as required. The majority of the tests are wide-ranging and include assessments of intelligence, personality and attitude/interest for clinical or research purposes.21 The Vienna EPP Test is one test in the VTS, and was used here to measure the extraversion, emotionality and adventurousness scores of the participants.
Vienna Risk-Taking Test The Vienna Risk-Taking Test is another test in the VTS, which is primarily applied in traffic psychology research.1 2 20 It was used here to measure participants’ driver risk-taking inclination. In this test, participants sat in front of a computer screen and were informed that they were required to view 24 videotaped road traffic situations (eg, overtaking manoeuvres or arrival at railroad crossings that have already started to close down) from the driver’s perspective. A picture taken from one situation is shown in figure 2. For each critical traffic situation, the scenario was first described with written text on the computer screen. Participants then viewed video clips of the scenario twice. The scenario lasted for ∼20 s for the first presentation, and participants were told only to observe the traffic situation without giving any response. For the second presentation, they had to 239
Downloaded from http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/ on November 16, 2015 - Published by group.bmj.com
Original article Figure 1 Sony racing game platform.
decide when they would abandon their manoeuvre by pressing the stop key on the panel to terminate the scenario presentation. After participants had finished one critical situation, the next critical situation was introduced and the procedure of testing was repeated until all the 24 critical road traffic situations were completed. The longer the participant’s reaction time, the higher was his or her willingness to take a risk in the critical traffic situation. The average time value for the 24 reaction time values was taken as a measure of risk-taking inclination of the participant.
Then they were divided randomly into two groups of 20. One group played a car racing game of the type called a ‘time trial game’, and the other group played a neutral game (∼20 min). A rest of 5 min was given after the game, followed by the Vienna Risk-Taking Test (∼15 min). To explore the difference in risktaking inclination for the racing game group from that for the non-racing game (neutral game) group, the Vienna Risk-Taking Test was taken after playing games, and this order of testing was similar to that used in Fischer’s study.8
Results Procedure Before the tests, participants from the racing game and neutral game group were separately asked to indicate their ‘car race game experience’ or ‘neutral game experience’ (1, never; 2, sometimes; 3, often). ‘Sometimes’ meant that they played these games for 7 h a week. This was explained to the participants before the test, although the exact number of hours they played per week was unknown. Then the experimenter explained the test procedure and the operation of the instruments to the participants, and told them that the experiment did not cause any pain or harm. Participants first took the EPP Test (∼20 min). 240
The risk-taking inclination values measured with the Vienna Risk-Taking Test ranged from 7.07 to 13.55 s. First, the t test was conducted on the inclination values with factors of age and gender, and the results showed that there was no difference in risk-taking inclination between age groups or gender groups. The scores (mean±SD) of extraversion, emotionality and adventurousness for average individuals taken from the scores in the study of Knyazev et al38 were 54.99±14.75, 40.36±21.99 and 43.38±15.70, respectively. There was no significant difference between the scores reported here and those of average individuals from Knyazev et al38 (for extraversion, p=0.301; for emotionality, p=0.178; for adventurousness, p=0.322). Deng M, et al. Inj Prev 2015;21:238–244. doi:10.1136/injuryprev-2014-041328
Downloaded from http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/ on November 16, 2015 - Published by group.bmj.com
Original article Figure 2 A picture taken from Vienna Risk-taking Test.
The impact of game type and game experience on risk-taking inclination Risk-taking inclination for the racing game group (11.62±1.37) was higher than for the neutral game group (9.95±1.50). The impact of game type (racing game vs neutral game) and game experience (car racing game experience: M=2.53, SD=0.68; neutral game experience: M=2.25, SD=0.63) on risk-taking inclination was analysed with analysis of variance (ANOVA). There was a significant difference (p
Original article
Effects of racing games on risky driving behaviour, and the significance of personality and physiological data Mingming Deng,1,2 Alan H S Chan,3 Feng Wu,1 Jun Wang4 1
School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China 2 School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an, China 3 Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, KowloonTong, Hong Kong 4 School of Information, Xi’an University of Finance and Economics, Xi’an, China Correspondence to Mingming Deng, School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, No 28, Xianning West Road, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710049, China [email protected] Received 9 June 2014 Revised 13 October 2014 Accepted 8 December 2014 Published Online First 24 December 2014
ABSTRACT Background Racing games have emerged as topselling products in the video and computer game industry. The effect of playing racing games on the inclination of gamers to take risks has been investigated. Method Two experiments were conducted. In experiment 1, the impact of personality traits on the effects of playing racing games on risk-taking inclination was examined. The Vienna Test System, which includes the Eysenck Personality Profile Test and the Vienna RiskTaking Test, was used to measure risk-taking inclination and risk-taking while driving. Experiment 2 was designed and conducted to analyse the effects of different intensity levels of car racing games on risktaking inclination, and to study the relationship between physiological data and risk-taking inclination. Physiological data on skin conductance, heart rate and blood pressure were measured with the NeuroDyne System. Results Participants playing a racing game were more inclined to take risks in critical road traffic situations than those playing a neutral game. The adventurousness dimension of the Eysenck Personality Profile Test correlated significantly positively with risk-taking inclination. More importantly, the effect of the intensity level of a racing game on risk-taking inclination was significant. The higher the intensity level of the racing game, the higher the risk-taking inclination while driving. The effect of intensity level of the racing game on skin conductance was significantly positive. Skin conductance correlated significantly positively with risktaking inclination. Conclusions The effect of playing racing games on risk-taking inclination is linked to personality and physiological data. Some recommendations are proposed as a result of this study for racing game management.
INTRODUCTION
To cite: Deng M, Chan AHS, Wu F, et al. Inj Prev 2015;21:238–244. 238
Over the past few years, virtual driving and racing games have emerged as top-selling products in the video and computer game industry.1–3 Anderson and Bushman4 proposed the general aggression model (GAM) for understanding the effects of violent media and reported that playing racing games may increase the aggressive behaviour of young people. GAM involves a multistage process by which personal and situational input variables such as recent exposure to violent media lead to aggressive behaviour by influencing several related internal states (eg, cognition, arousal).4–7 In line with the predictions of GAM, Fischer et al8 suggested that cognition, affect and behaviours related to increased risk-taking may be activated by the
playing of racing games. They analysed the effect of playing violent games on the driving-related risktaking inclination of gamers and demonstrated that risky media content (as provided by racing games) activated cognitions and feelings of arousal and excitement that were positively related to increased risk-taking, which in turn could lead to actual increased risk-taking in simulated critical road traffic situations. A later study by Fischer et al1 reported that the reason why video racing games increased risk-taking in critical road traffic situations was that the racing games made the player actively break traffic rules, which led to a more positive evaluation of reckless driving and increased self-perception of being a reckless driver. The study by Beullens et al9 indicated that video game playing was an important aspect of adolescent lifestyle and should not be neglected when examining traffic-related risk-taking. Behaviours considered to be risky driving include speeding, tailgating, overtaking on the wrong side, running red lights, not using a seat belt, driving without a licence,10 and talking on mobile phones without using hand-free accessories.11 Risk-taking in road traffic was associated with an increased chance of injury or death.12–15 It has been shown that Chinese drivers exhibit various risky behaviours on the road, and many traffic incidents in China have resulted from risky driving.16 17 In 2010, there were 3 906 164 traffic incidents, in which 65 225 people died and 254 075 others were injured. About 40% of these incidents resulted from risky driving.18 Risky driving is associated with other healthcompromising behaviours and mental health factors.19 In many studies of risky driving, the Vienna Risk-Taking Test was used to evaluate the risk-taking behaviour of the participants.20 21 It is a widely accepted and standardised measure for assessing an individual’s willingness to take risks in various road traffic situations.1 2 20 The theoretical background for the test is provided by Wilde’s theory of risk homoeostasis, which postulates that people at any moment of time compare the amount of risk they perceive with their target level of risk and will adjust their behaviour in an attempt to eliminate any discrepancies between the two.22 Risk-taking in driving is usually exhibited by drivers based on their assessments of resources that appear inadequate or limited (anticipated delay, low level of fuel, limited visibility, etc) with respect to conditions for achieving the objective of failurefree driving. It is also related to an individual’s psychological and/or physiological states, which are more or less exacerbated by excitation or
Deng M, et al. Inj Prev 2015;21:238–244. doi:10.1136/injuryprev-2014-041328
Downloaded from http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/ on November 16, 2015 - Published by group.bmj.com
Original article despondency.23 Evidence from physiology has suggested that physiological data contribute to the understanding of the users’ state, reflecting the promptness of reactions of the autonomic nervous system.24 In a video game study, Lin and Hu25 found that physiological data correlated with task performance data, and a decrease in task performance level was associated with an increase in normalised skin conductivity (SC). Heart rate (HR) is a popular indicator for measuring mental effort. Generally, the more mental effort that has to be spent, the higher the average HR.26 Brookhuis et al27 measured participants’ HR in a study exploring the effect of the driver support system on mental workload in simulated driving, and found that a participant’s HR while driving with the support system was significantly lower than when driving without the support system. Blood pressure (BP) is another physiological variable that has been analysed in driving game studies. Fischer et al1 measured participants’ BP to analyse their arousal while playing racing games and found that the BP of racing game players was significantly higher than that of neutral game players. Arousal has been shown to be positively associated with inclination to take risks after being involved with risk-promoting media content (eg, racing game).8 28 Thus, BP is a useful indicator of the level of risk-taking inclination of drivers while driving. For examining psychological aspects, there are some instruments that measure individual personality traits. One of the most popular is the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) developed by Eysenck and Eysenck.29 The EPQ has been used to investigate the relationship between personality and incidents in coal mining,30 driving,31 and aviation industries.32 33 It has been widely used in many countries, including English-speaking countries—for example, New Zealand34—and non-English-speaking countries—for example, Greece35 and Germany.36 The EPQ has three main dimensions: extraversion, emotionality and adventurousness.21 30 Luczak and Tarnowski31 demonstrated that the EPQ can be used as a screening test for special-risk groups of drivers (drivers who have caused crashes, drivers engaging in drink- or drug-driving, drivers scoring more than the 24-penalty-point limit). Li et al32 measured pilots with the EPQ, and the results indicated that adventurousness and age of pilot were helpful in predicting their incident proneness. Chu et al30 analysed the relationship between work injuries of coal miners and their personality traits and mental health, and concluded that adventurousness and extraversion were risk factors for work injuries, while emotionality was not. The Eysenck Personality Profiler (EPP)37 was a direct development of the EPQ. More recently, the EPP has been used to measure extraversion, emotionality and adventurousness.21 38 Aneks39 showed that certain configurations of temperament and personality factors can constitute special road crash risk factors—for example, the three attributes (extraversion, emotionality and adventurousness) of the EPQ may relate to such special risk factors. From these existing studies, it seems reasonable to assume that the three attributes, extraversion, emotionality and adventurousness, of the EPQ will affect risk-taking inclinations in driving. A comprehensive review of the literature indicated that only a few studies1 8 9 28 have examined the effects of playing racing games on risk-taking inclination, and no studies have focused on the impact of personality traits on the effects of playing racing games on inclination to take risks. Furthermore, only a few studies have measured the BP of gamers in order to analyse arousal after game playing.1 4 No studies have analysed the relationship between physiological data, such as SC and HR, and the risk-taking inclination of racing game players. Therefore, this study attempts to fill some of the gaps in our understanding Deng M, et al. Inj Prev 2015;21:238–244. doi:10.1136/injuryprev-2014-041328
of the impact of personality traits on the effect of playing racing games on the inclination to take risks (experiment 1), and to analyse the impact of different intensity levels of racing games on risk-taking inclination, and the relationship between physiological data and the risk-taking inclination of racing game players (experiment 2). In the present study, the effect of playing racing games on driving risk was analysed and compared with that of playing neutral games on driving risk. Also, the effect of violent racing games on driving risk was analysed and compared with that of common racing games. Racing games and neutral games might differentially affect driving risk, because racing games increase the accessibility of thoughts that are positively related to risk-taking, while neutral games do not. Violent racing games and common racing games might similarly affect driving risk because they both have violent media content in the context of driving.
EXPERIMENT 1 Participants The participants were 40 students (32 men and 8 women; age range 21–33 years; M=22.80, SD=2.55) recruited at Xi’an Jiaotong University. They were asked whether they would be willing to participate in a study dealing with risk-taking while driving. They were informed of the objectives and details of the study and gave informed consent before the experiment started. None of them were heavy video gamers (more than 30 h of play per week). Each participant was given a reward of 10 Yuan for participating in the study.
Instruments Game platform A simulated car game on a Sony racing game platform was used (figure 1). The participants played a car racing game which was a type of ‘time trial game’. This racing game belongs to the type of games called ‘circuit racing’ games, which have been discussed by Fischer et al.8 For the neutral game, a computer poker solitaire game was selected.
Vienna EPP Test The Vienna Test System (VTS; Schufried Test Instruments) was used in experiment 1. It consists of powerful basic software, a battery of 60 individual computer-aided tests and input devices that can be added as required. The majority of the tests are wide-ranging and include assessments of intelligence, personality and attitude/interest for clinical or research purposes.21 The Vienna EPP Test is one test in the VTS, and was used here to measure the extraversion, emotionality and adventurousness scores of the participants.
Vienna Risk-Taking Test The Vienna Risk-Taking Test is another test in the VTS, which is primarily applied in traffic psychology research.1 2 20 It was used here to measure participants’ driver risk-taking inclination. In this test, participants sat in front of a computer screen and were informed that they were required to view 24 videotaped road traffic situations (eg, overtaking manoeuvres or arrival at railroad crossings that have already started to close down) from the driver’s perspective. A picture taken from one situation is shown in figure 2. For each critical traffic situation, the scenario was first described with written text on the computer screen. Participants then viewed video clips of the scenario twice. The scenario lasted for ∼20 s for the first presentation, and participants were told only to observe the traffic situation without giving any response. For the second presentation, they had to 239
Downloaded from http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/ on November 16, 2015 - Published by group.bmj.com
Original article Figure 1 Sony racing game platform.
decide when they would abandon their manoeuvre by pressing the stop key on the panel to terminate the scenario presentation. After participants had finished one critical situation, the next critical situation was introduced and the procedure of testing was repeated until all the 24 critical road traffic situations were completed. The longer the participant’s reaction time, the higher was his or her willingness to take a risk in the critical traffic situation. The average time value for the 24 reaction time values was taken as a measure of risk-taking inclination of the participant.
Then they were divided randomly into two groups of 20. One group played a car racing game of the type called a ‘time trial game’, and the other group played a neutral game (∼20 min). A rest of 5 min was given after the game, followed by the Vienna Risk-Taking Test (∼15 min). To explore the difference in risktaking inclination for the racing game group from that for the non-racing game (neutral game) group, the Vienna Risk-Taking Test was taken after playing games, and this order of testing was similar to that used in Fischer’s study.8
Results Procedure Before the tests, participants from the racing game and neutral game group were separately asked to indicate their ‘car race game experience’ or ‘neutral game experience’ (1, never; 2, sometimes; 3, often). ‘Sometimes’ meant that they played these games for 7 h a week. This was explained to the participants before the test, although the exact number of hours they played per week was unknown. Then the experimenter explained the test procedure and the operation of the instruments to the participants, and told them that the experiment did not cause any pain or harm. Participants first took the EPP Test (∼20 min). 240
The risk-taking inclination values measured with the Vienna Risk-Taking Test ranged from 7.07 to 13.55 s. First, the t test was conducted on the inclination values with factors of age and gender, and the results showed that there was no difference in risk-taking inclination between age groups or gender groups. The scores (mean±SD) of extraversion, emotionality and adventurousness for average individuals taken from the scores in the study of Knyazev et al38 were 54.99±14.75, 40.36±21.99 and 43.38±15.70, respectively. There was no significant difference between the scores reported here and those of average individuals from Knyazev et al38 (for extraversion, p=0.301; for emotionality, p=0.178; for adventurousness, p=0.322). Deng M, et al. Inj Prev 2015;21:238–244. doi:10.1136/injuryprev-2014-041328
Downloaded from http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/ on November 16, 2015 - Published by group.bmj.com
Original article Figure 2 A picture taken from Vienna Risk-taking Test.
The impact of game type and game experience on risk-taking inclination Risk-taking inclination for the racing game group (11.62±1.37) was higher than for the neutral game group (9.95±1.50). The impact of game type (racing game vs neutral game) and game experience (car racing game experience: M=2.53, SD=0.68; neutral game experience: M=2.25, SD=0.63) on risk-taking inclination was analysed with analysis of variance (ANOVA). There was a significant difference (p
