the behavioural effects of video games
电动游戏的行为学影响

Good game?
游戏有益？

 

May 28th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Playing video games can make you a better person

电动游戏帮助玩家成为更好的人

VIDEO games get a bad press. Many are unquestionably violent and, as has been the way with new media from novels to comic books to television, they have been accused of corrupting the moral fabric of youth. Nor are such ccusations without merit. There is a body of research suggesting that violent games can lead to aggressive thoughts, if not to violence itself. But not all games are shoot-’em-ups, and what is less examined is whether those that reward more constructive behaviour also have lingering impacts. That, however, is starting to change. Two studies showing that video games have a bright side as well as a dark one have been carried out recently.

大众对电动游戏颇有微词。不可否认，非常多的电动游戏都充斥着暴力色彩，因而也就难以逃脱败坏青少年道德观的指责，重蹈了小说、漫画、电视等新媒体的覆辙。不过这些指责并非毫无根据。大量的研究结果表明，暴力游戏即使不会使玩家有暴力的行为，也会让他们产生暴力的想法。然而，并非所有的游戏都是打打杀杀，有些游戏褒奖积极的行为，他们是否对玩家也有潜移默化的影响？这个问题却乏人关注。最近有两项研究表明电动游戏瑕瑜互见，优缺点并存。

One, to be published in June by the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, was conducted by Douglas Gentile, of Iowa State University’s media research laboratory. He and his colleagues tested the effects of playing so-called “pro-social” games on children and young adults in three countries.

《实验社会心理学杂志》六月份刊发了其中一项研究。这项研究由爱荷华州立大学媒体研究实验室的Douglas Gentile及其同事共同进行。他们针对来自三个国家的孩童和青年玩家，检测所谓的“亲社会”游戏对他们产生的影响。

A group of 161 American students played one of six games for 20 minutes. Some were given “Ty2” or “Crash Twinsanity”, both of which involve cartoonish fighting and destruction. Others were assigned “Chibi-Robo!”, which involves helping characters in the game by doing their chores, or “Super Mario Sunshine”, in which players clean up pollution and graffiti. A third group, acting as a control, played “Pure Pinball” or “Super Monkey Ball Deluxe”, both of which involve guiding a ball through mazes.

其中161 位美国学生为一组，玩六款游戏其中之一，时间长20分钟。第一小组分派到“Ty2” 或“Crash Twinsanity”游戏，这两款涉及卡通人物的对打和破坏行为。第二小组分到“Chibi-Robo!”，一款帮助游戏中的主人公完成任务的游戏，或“Super Mario Sunshine”，一款由玩家清理污物和街头涂鸦的游戏。第三小组则作为对照，玩两部球出迷宫的游戏——“Pure Pinball” 或“Super Monkey Ball Deluxe”。

Their games over, the participants were asked to choose 11 of 30 easy, medium or hard shape-based puzzles for a partner to complete, and told that their partner would receive a $10 gift voucher if he could complete ten of them. Those who had been playing pro-social games were significantly more likely to help their partner by selecting easy puzzles. The opposite was true for those assigned violent games.

游戏结束后，参与者从30款难度分别为简单、中等、困难的拼图游戏中挑选11款，选一位搭档让其完成。同时告知搭档如果能够完成其中的10款游戏，便可奖励10美元的礼券。结果显示，“亲社会”游戏的玩家明显比暴力游戏的玩家更可能为其搭档挑选简单的拼图。反过来说，暴力游戏的玩家确实更可能会为其搭档挑选难度高的游戏。

The other parts of Dr Gentile’s study looked at established behaviour. In one, a group of 680 Singaporeans aged 12-14 were asked to list their three favourite games and state the number of hours they played. They were then given questionnaires, the answers to which suggested that those who spent the longest playing games which involved helping others were most likely to help, share, co-operate and empathise with others. They also had lower scores in tests for hostile thoughts and the acceptance of violence as normal. In the second, Japanese aged 10-17 were asked how much time they spent playing games in which the main character helps others. When questioned three to four months later, those who played these types of games the most were also rated as more helpful to those around them in real life.

Gentile博士的其他部分研究观察的是定型行为。第一部分实验中，680位12至14岁的新加坡玩家为一组，要求每人列出三部最喜欢的游戏，且说明玩游戏持续的时间，然后再进行问卷调查。从问卷的答案中便可一窥倪端：进行助人游戏时间最长的玩家最有可能帮助、同情他人，与他人分享。在敌意思想和暴力正常化的测试中，这些玩家得分也较低。第二部分实验的研究对象是10至17岁的日本玩家，他们被要求告知花费在帮助他人的游戏上的具体时间长短。调查三四个月后，观察到经常玩助人游戏类型的玩家在现实生活中也是更愿意帮助身边周围的人的。

Screened for virtue

瑕不掩瑜

These two, later, parts of Dr Gentile’s study might, of course, just be proving that nice people prefer pro-social games. But a second controlled experiment, by Tobias Greitemeyer of the University of Sussex, in England, and Silvia Osswald of Ludwig-Maximilian University, in Munich, confirms the gist of Dr Gentile’s conclusions. In this piece of research (to be published later this year, also in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology), Dr Greitemeyer and Dr Osswald asked 46 German students to play one of two classic games. In the pro-social one, “Lemmings”, the aim is to protect rodents from various dangers. By contrast “Tetris” acted as a neutral control. In this game players rotate falling shapes so that they slot neatly together instead of saving self-destructive furry animals.

Gentile博士的后面两部分研究只是证明与人为善的人更喜欢玩“亲社会”游戏。而由英格兰苏赛克斯大学的Tobias Greitemeyer和慕尼黑大学的Silvia Osswald进行的第二个对照试验却确证了Gentile博士的实验结论的要点。在这次研究（研究结果将于今年下半年同样刊发在《实验社会心理学杂志》上）中，Greitemeyer博士和Osswald博士邀请了46位德国学生，参与两部经典游戏。其中一部“Lemmings”，属亲社会的类型，游戏主旨是保护啮齿目动物免于各种不同危险。相对拯救自我灭亡的毛皮动物，另外一部游戏“Tetris”的内容则相反，属于中性对照试验，玩家在游戏中旋转下降的不同方块，使模型排列整齐。

Playtime over, the students were asked to say what happens next in three incomplete stories involving a driver and a cyclist who narrowly miss colliding; two friends, one of whom is unapologetic despite being repeatedly late; and a diner speaking to a restaurant manager after waiting for an hour to be served and then having food spilt on him. Those who had played “Lemmings” suggested endings in which the characters in the stories exhibited significantly fewer aggressive thoughts, responses and actions than the ones suggested by the “Tetris” players.

游戏时间结束，参与的学生针对3个不完整的故事进行故事接龙：第一个故事与一位司机和一位骑自行车的人在车祸中死里逃生；第二个故事中，有两个朋友，其中一个多次迟到，但至今未曾表示歉意；最后一个故事是一个用餐者，等了一个小时才上菜，现在因为被食物泼溅到而和餐厅经理理论。在“Lemmings”的玩家续讲的故事中，故事人物表现出的想法、反应和行为的暴力程度都显著少于“Tetris”玩家。

The upshot of both studies is that video games are like any other medium. Feed the user with aggressive thoughts and you risk making him aggressive. Feed him with the milk of human kindness and the opposite will probably happen. No great surprise, perhaps. But a salutary reminder both that the older generation should not rush to judgment on youthful habits it does not understand, and that the medium is not always the message.

两项研究的结论都表明电动游戏与任何其他媒体无异，都会让玩家产生暴力的想法，不过暴力与否完全则取决于玩家自身。电动游戏或是美德之源，亦或是暴力邪恶的深渊，这个结论可能并无新意。但是年长的一代不能理解年青一代的习惯时，并不应该轻率地下结论；而且媒体也只是一种信息媒介，并非总代表信息本身，意识到这两点就是大有裨益了。

《经济学人》（The Economist ( http://www.economist.com ))
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sarah.L:  http://www.ecocn.org/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=19748&extra=page%3D1