"Psychologists have taken the "media priming" effects of popular video console and PC-based games on the road, finding that virtual racing seems to lead to aggressive driving and a propensity for risk taking," according to a story in the March issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, which is published by the American Psychological Association.
Researchers at Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians University and the Allianz Center for Technology found that of 198 men and women, those who play more virtual car-racing games were more likely to report that they drive aggressively and get in accidents. Less frequent virtual racing was associated with more cautious driving.
A quote in the press release says:
the authors observe that on a practical level, "Our results pose the question whether playing racing games leads to accidents in real-life road traffic." Based on their findings and prior research, they assert that, "Playing racing games could provoke unsafe driving. ... Practitioners in the field of road traffic safety should bear in mind the possibility that racing games indeed make road traffic less safe, not least because game players are mostly young adults, acknowledged as the highest accident-race group."
Of course, the riskiest drivers are young men, and young men are also among the most likely to play racing games, so you'd expect a correlation.
The article is available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/xap13122.pdf
