Misconceptions about Video Games - mental_floss on YouTube (Ep. 34)

Hi, I'm Elliot and this is Mental Floss on YouTube

Today I'm going to tell you guys some misconceptions about video games. Misconception number one, video games cause ADHD

This hasn't been studied much, but there's still no reason to believe that video games cause attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

One study out of Eastern Michigan University found that young men who already had ADHD

were more likely to report that they frequently played video games while procrastinating

But the study noticed that women with ADHD were less likely to report that problem

And that's all correlation. There's no evidence that video games caused the disorder

Misconception number two, there's a Madden curse. So the Madden football video game that gets released every year

has had a football player featured on the cover since 1999. People have noticed that these players tend to have a less impressive season

after being chosen for the cover, usually due to injury. So this seems to be a case of emphasizing when the curse applies and ignoring when it doesn't

Players who have gotten injured the season after appearing on the cover include Garrison Hurst with a broken ankle, Shawn Alexander with a foot injury, and Peyton Hillis with

a hamstring injury. But then there are players like Titans running back Eddie George, who had the best year of

his career after appearing on the cover. Though superstitious folks might say that the curse still applied because his team totally

lost in the playoffs. And Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson who did break his fingers played through the and broke the single single receiving record So mis I don play sports Misconception number three kids make up the majority of the gaming population

According to one study, around 62% of the console market is made up of adults, and they're

also about 66% of the PC market. And a 2008 study conducted by Pew Internet and American Life found that 81% of 18-29 year-old

Americans played video games, and 23% of people who are 65 and older play

One out of every four grandparents, you guys. That's crazy. Misconception number four, blowing into an NES cartridge fixes it

Okay, so for all of you super young gamers, this is something that people used to do way back in the day

when their Nintendo Entertainment System game cartridge wasn't working. They'd remove it, and then they'd blow on it

and then they'd return it for sometimes better results. There's no definitive answer for whether or not this actually worked

but most experts claim that blowing on the cartridge didn't do much. Plus, it harmed the games

The thing that probably helped more was just removing and reinserting the cartridge, but it was so fun to do

Misconception number five, Video games are violent. So this is a generalization that a lot of people make about video games

but actually the majority of them are not violent. The Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB, is responsible for rating games

In 2013, they gave 46% of games an everyone rating. 19% were everyone 10 and up, 23% were teen

and only 12% of games were given a mature rating. And for the record, games don't cause violence either, okay

Check out our episode on technology or this episode of Healthcare Triage Misconception number six playing video games causes desensitization to violence So this one might be true but needs to be studied way more so I gonna give you both sides

In 2011, a study was published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

For 25 minutes, the researchers had 70 young adults play a video game

Some played a violent one and others played a non-violent one. Let's just say Mario

I don't know if that's what it was. Afterwards, both groups were shown violent and non-violent pictures while their brainwave activity

was measured. Those who had played the violent game had less brain response to violent pictures, so that points to desensitization

But that same year, a study was published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology

Researchers gathered 122 undergraduates, some who had played video games in the previous six months

and some who had never played video games. Then they showed the volunteers 150 pictures, some violent and some non-violent

They hypothesized that if video game players were truly desensitized to violence

then they'd have more trouble remembering the violent images than non-video game players

But the groups were actually about equal. Misconception number seven, video games ruin your vision

They've actually been shown to improve eyesight. According to a 2003 study done at the University of Rochester in New York

people who regularly play video games are better at keeping an eye on multiple things at once

and they're able to visually track 30% more items than a non-video game player can

Misconception number eight, video games make you less smart. There are actually studies that show

that video games might be good for your brain. For example a 2013 study conducted in Berlin had a group of adults play Super Mario 64 for 30 minutes every day for two months Awesome This group showed more increase of gray matter in the brain than a control group did who did not play video games for those two months

That increase in gray matter affected the right hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and cerebellum

parts of the brain associated with things like memory, fine motor skills, and spatial intelligence

Misconception number 9, Donkey Kong is a mistranslation. Okay, have you ever wondered why he's called Donkey Kong when like, Monkey Kong would be a lot more accurate

Yeah, well a lot of people say that he's supposed to be Monkey Kong, but there was a mistranslation

between the Japanese and American words. But that's actually hard to believe considering the words monkey and donkey in Japanese aren't

similar at all. According to the game's inventor, the name Donkey Kong is totally what he intended, with

the donkey implying stubbornness, and the Kong referencing a gorilla. Misconception number ten, there's no such thing as video game addiction

This is a relatively new phenomenon, so we don't know much. But we do know that it's real

It is currently in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

under the category Condition Requiring Further Study. People who have a video game addiction have the same symptoms observed

and other addictions, including physical withdrawal. It's crazy. Hey, thanks for watching Misconception on Mental Floss on YouTube

which is made with the help of all of these nice people. If you have a topic for an upcoming Misconceptions episode that you would like to see

leave it down in the comments and maybe we'll make it and it'll be awesome. I'll see you next week. Bye