Males More Motivated by Territorial Video Games

New research from Stanford scientists is defining the differences between the way men and women think by proving that when playing territorial video games the part of the brain associated with reward and addiction was more activated in males then females.

“It’s my sense that the results really do open a fascinating realm of future investigations,” said Dr. Kathryn J. Kotrla, chairwoman of psychiatry and behavioral science at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in Round Rock. “These investigations allow one to visualize literally the reward that different individuals experience.”

“It would be fascinating either to determine what motivates women more than men or, within a specific gender, to look at the range of motivations and rewards for different variables,” she added. “The study itself is looking at gaining territory but one could imagine studies that dealt with attachment or caring for others, so it really opens the door to a wide range of extremely interesting questions about human motivation.”

“Forty percent of Americans play video games, and men are two to three times more likely to feel addicted,” said study author Dr. Fumiko Hoeft, senior research scientist at Stanford University School of Medicine. “It seems like an international phenomenon, but no one has looked at how the brain responds.”

Men are more territorial than women psychologically so they get more enjoyment or reward out of those types of games. However, there wasn’t any difference in the male and female brain’s reaction to video games that didn’t involve gaining territory.

Perhaps a study should be done on the games that women are more typically associated with in the casual genre as well for comparison. This study comes as no surprise. Scientists have proven time and again that the more pleasurable something is, the more addicting it becomes.

via HealthDay News