Can violent video games narrow the gender gap in science? According to one intriguing paper, reported on by Cognitive Daily, it seems possible.
The study found that:
– After playing a violent video game, women performed just as well as the men did on a spatial test commonly used to test science skills — and this gender gap absence was still present 5 months after the study.
– Both men and women improved drastically on the spatial test after playing a violent game, while a peaceful puzzle game resulted in little improvement.
it’s intriguing that video games could possibly help more women excel in a career reserved for men …
Sad that maybe violence is necessary to do it, but maybe a more peaceful game could be developed that hold attention while improving science skills.
Tetris, anyone?
(Complete paper: Feng, J., Spence, I., Pratt, J. (2007). Playing an Action Video Game Reduces Gender Differences in Spatial Cognition. Psychological Science, 18(10), 850-855. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01990.x)
1 response so far ↓
1 Dave Munger // Jul 14, 2008 at 4:35 am
Actually I think Tetris has been studied, and unfortunately doesn’t have the same effect as a more realistic first-person shooter. But surely there’s a way to do it without so much violence.
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