Video games, especially those that require a lot of time investment, are played in open worlds and whose characters have a very marked role (World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Aion, etc.) can affect how we behave in the real world . It is the conclusion of the latest study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and published in the journal Psychological Science .
In video games, everyone has the opportunity to assume an identity that in real life would be unthinkable, therefore, the object of the study focused on whether these virtual experiences would lead to changes in day-to-day behavior .
To do this, they recruited 194 university students to participate in two studies to which they were randomly assigned. In the first study they would embody the role of Superman (a heroic avatar), Voldemort (an evil avatar) or a circle (a neutral avatar).
They then participated in a taste test. They were asked to choose between offering chocolate or hot sauce to the next test participant.
Participants who played as Voldemort (the evil avatar) offered twice as much hot sauce as those who played other characters.
A second experiment carried out in the same way confirmed these results and showed that playing with virtual avatars can have a strong effect on later behavior in the real world .
The researchers argue that the study results, while preliminary, may have implications for social behavior.
