Poll: The Application of Social Learning Theory in Games to Reality

[Thepistolman1234]

Social Learning theory is a popular theory among psychologists, it involves the observation of a role model, imitation of the behaviour of the role model, then the behaviour being reinforced via a reward. While this may be just a theory, evidence has been found to support it, when this theory is applied to games, it raises interesting questions, if people playing First Person Shooters are seen to be rewarded for violence, what effects could this have on real life, I would like to know if anyone believes that behaviour that is reinforced in games does end up applying in Reality, or am I just a fool?

 

[Smooth Operator]

No it does not, because the activity of your thumbs does not in any way translate into real violence.
None of the emotional or physical action is related, so you are only being rewarded to perform well in game.

 

[hazabaza1]

There's been tests about this. Generally, nothing bad happens, and when bad things seem to happen the people investigating were usually biased.

 

[dimensional]

I agree with Mr K there is a distinct difference between reality and a game any effects on your normal life from them would be extremely minimal, you couldnt just reward people in game to kill hundreds of people or drive like an absolute maniac then take them out of the game and go yup well youve done it in game now try it for real there will be rewards if you do well just like in game.

In short I dont believe people learn social skills from games except in a very broad context they learn these skills from their real world surroundings and experiences all you learn in a game is how to get better at the game (unless its a game designed to properly teach you how to fly a plane of something then you will hopefully learn to fly a plane)