Male Brains 'Wired for Videogame Obsession'

thinkzinc notes a story indicating that, according to a new study, men have a harder time putting down a controller than women do. Researchers at Stanford did brain imaging work on a group of young test subjects while they played a simple PC game. Besides the 'obvious' conclusion that men were more 'aggressive at gaining territory on the screen', the tests also indicated that male brains showed more activity in the reward and addiction components of the brain. "The lead author, Dr. Allan Reiss, noted that most of the video games that are popular with men are territory and aggression-type games. 'These gender differences in the brain may help explain why males are more attracted to, and more likely to become hooked on video games than females,' he said. Other recent surveys indicate that about 40 percent of Americans regularly play games on a computer or console, but young males are two or three times more likely than females to feel addicted to video games, Reiss said. "

Haven't found the games addictive for females?

[Ost316]

I agree. While using a "territory" game may fall inline with the mass's perception of video games, they're not the only games out there. The industry has evolved to gear games at their male target audience, though recently innovative and casual games outside of the "territory and agression" mentality are becoming common. When you test subjects on games in which the male brain is supposed to be inclined, it should be little surprise that they find the games more addictive. This shouldn't necessarily mean that video games can't be as compelling to women as to men. Have the study participants play a variety of games -- not just those related to screen territory -- and then let me know if this still holds true.

GF + Sims = zombie

[Joe the Lesser]

I agree. I have trouble putting down the controller, but my gf is afraid of picking it up because she can't stop whatsoever until I snap her out of it.

I think it has to do with attention span. Those who love constant stimulation like my gf get a serious high from video games like the Sims where there is always things going on.

Re:What is wrong with males' strengths

[MrNemesis]

I'm lucky enough to have a circle of friends, both male and female, who are highly attuned to this gender bias in advertising and equally adept at ignoring it. Couple that with the fact that none of us watch much TV and that most of us are aware that large numbers of people are still institutionally sexist and we usually just laugh and decide not to let it offend us. Not sure if the US gets it worse than we do in the UK (there's an inherent sample bias in that people bitching abotu it on /. are largely male and probably more likely to be single than other blocks of males) but there's certainly a large degree of negative male sterotypes in adverts (see below), but that's not to say there isn't an equally large number of negative female stereotypes as well

On the back of that, I'd like to say this: feminists rock, or at least what I consider "proper" feminists (i.e. those women who really do want equal rights and not just an excuse to sneer at "useless" men) and it's pretty much given that if I'm attracted to a woman she's a feminist. They're ballsy, they don't want to be fitted into a "role", they're typically smart and sharp as hell and they're not going to put up with any bullshit. These are qualities that geeks usually admire, and I'm certainly no different in this regard. But I just see the word "feminist" (along with "feminazi", "liberal" and "pro-human rights") bandied about with such insulting regularity that I really wonder if people aren't forgetting what feminism was originally about - namely, not some stupid fucking marketing trick to make women feel superior and buy more sterotyped consumable crap ("I'm a woman in control of my own life... that's why I need to buy some fucking shampoo and lipstick and drool over this neanderthal six-pack on legs whilst I pour diet coke down my throat").

P.S. I hope this is the right one (YouTube blocked at work) but Charlie Brooker did a pretty nice take on it on his screenwipe TV show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiwmYjk9ARA [youtube.com] - the reason that men are often portrayed as idiots in adverts is that a worryingly large percetntage of them are. Just don't call him cynical :) Unfortunately I share much of his opinion in that I would love for there to be a "B Ark" made at some point in the near future.

Q: What's all this about Brazil?

[Futurepower(R)]

A: If you are male, and go to Brazil (and Thailand), you will begin to realize that all your life in the U.S. you have been treated badly by women.

It's reasonably easy, for me anyway, to find women in the U.S. who are personally very interesting and are responsible. They are often valuable employees, for example. It is difficult to find a woman in the U.S. who I would consider marriageable. My women friends say the men in the U.S. are just as bad, and I have every reason to believe they are right, but haven't done as much personal investigation of men, of course.

In Brazil, you will find many women who should marry someone, even if they are not right to marry you.

But, take your time. It takes a lot of effort to build a marriage-quality relationship.

Women from the Thai culture in Thailand (not from the Chinese culture) are often also quite gentle with men. Although I have met Thai women I thought were marriageable in both Thailand and the U.S., in general they are too childish. Also, there are huge cultural differences.

Marrying someone from another culture, even the Brazilian culture, requires extra effort and insight and willingness to define and learn the best elements of your own culture and the other person's.

If all of this is outside your experience, you may be helped by remembering the song "One Night in Bangkok". The song is about a true story. One year the World Chess Championships were held in Bangkok. Some of the chess players went out at night. The women were so nice to them that some of them fell in love immediately. I have known European and American men in Thailand who did that.

I saw the aftermath of instant love in Bangkok happen with my own eyes, standing on the corner on Patpong road about 20 years ago. A western woman was trying to get control again over the man she came with, after he had seen how nice the Thai women could be, even though the women he had seen were prostitutes, and therefore tended to be far less interesting than more moral women.

Those who don't like what I've said here can express their own theories about why there is a social breakdown in the United States. (Dollar falling in value, highest percentage of population in prison, and so on and on.)

Link to actual paper

[Luyseyal]

Here's the actual paper: Hoeft_2008JPsychiatrRes.pdf [stanford.edu]

I emailed the progenitor of the paper about the "kind of video game" issue. I posit that word jumble games and MMORPGs are the sort of games that are likely to addict women.

If he ever writes back (unlikely), I'll post.
-l