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Technology

Computer games may be spawning reckless drivers

By Paul Marks

1 September 2010

DRIVING-based computer games like and may be encouraging adolescents to drive recklessly when they take to the roads for real, a study of teenagers’ attitudes to road risks suggests.

at the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) in Belgium wanted to find out if simple racing games and more reckless “drive-’em up” games might encourage real-world speeding and risk-taking. She suspected it might: “Some drive-’em-ups give you points for driving into cars or even pedestrians.” Drink-driving generally does not feature in games, so she expected gaming would not inspire this behaviour.

Beullens sent questionnaires to…

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