Science says: Men's brains get more 'reward' from gaming
by Kyle Orland 
{ Feb 5th 2008 at 2:55PM }
Developers and executives that are struggling to develop games that appeal to women now have a new excuse to fall back on if and when they fail. According to a study by Stanford University's Alan Reiss, men are hard wired to feel more "rewarded" playing games than women.The study, which looked at 11 men and 11 women, asked participants to play a simple territorial point-and-click game while hooked up to an fMRI machine. The men in the study showed much great activity in the brain's "mesocorticolimbic center," which is associated with reward and addiction.
Interestingly, the amount of activity for men went up as they did better at the game, while the amount of activity for women stayed roughly constant, regardless of achievement. "The females 'got' the game... they appeared motivated to succeed at the game," Reiss said. "The males were just a lot more motivated to succeed." Yeah, yeah ... tell it to the Frag Dolls.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
paragraph @ Feb 5th 2008 2:58PM
22 People playing Counterstrike isn't much of a representative sample...
all the women who want to be part of MY case study... see me in my bedroom for some VR action...
err...
that is to say, i think more testing needs to be done before the scientific community will belive this.
Durandel @ Feb 5th 2008 3:35PM
I agree, this is in no way indicative of anything but a starting point for more studies of this nature :)
Saria the Cat @ Feb 5th 2008 6:56PM
Yeah, 22 people is hardly a good sample, especially if it isn't a simple random sample. I'd be much happier with an SRS large enough and done in such a way to offset gender and class biases as much as possible. That would be much more representative. They also need to study different types of games and their effects on brain activity. I'm sure a game that utilizes verbal skills will feel much more "rewarding" to women than to men, whereas a game that requires spatial thought adheres to male thought patterns.
Platy @ Feb 5th 2008 3:06PM
"sked participants to play a simple territorial point-and-click game"
studys also shows that testosterone is responsible for the animal instinct in men of teritorial dominance and trying to be the "alpha man" =P
required @ Feb 5th 2008 3:10PM
point-and-click? no look-and-clack? what-the-heck?
upz @ Feb 5th 2008 3:27PM
What the hack?
mr mobius @ Feb 5th 2008 3:12PM
It'd be nice to see how such a small population can be representative. It also seems that there may be a strong selection bias.
ugg.tryptophan @ Feb 5th 2008 4:21PM
a random sample has to be used because a census would be too expensive, combined with these findings, and common knowledge, its easy to see that most females dont play videogames as much as males
Lone Starr @ Feb 5th 2008 3:13PM
I always knew sex was a game.
Jeff @ Feb 5th 2008 3:22PM
And women's brains get more 'reward' from cooking and cleaning?
C'mon, science. Bullshit studies give you a bad name.
Cyro @ Feb 5th 2008 3:51PM
Actually I can honestly say that I don't know a lot of women that play video games. Heck I have tried to get my wife to play video games with me with no success. I bought her a Wii w/ SMG and she paid no attention, so I sold it , because I don't like it either. I bought Scene it? for the 360 and she liked it, and played it for about 3 days and thats it. I was like, WTF?! When I buy a game I play it for weeks and weeks.
My Friends list in xbox live is full of people from all over the world, and I don't have a single female in my list. That has to tell you something about women and games. I believe women that like video games the way we do are very rare, but I believe that number is going up.
I bet if they did that study but took the readings when they went shopping it would be all the way around. lol.
t_m @ Feb 5th 2008 11:34PM
ditto.
I've managed (though lots of trial and error) to get my girlfriend interested in a few games (video, card and board) but the interest never lasts that long.
She enjoys them, but its only a casual interest... after a few plays or a short while the interest dies.
BlackTye @ Feb 5th 2008 3:53PM
Would you say they have a sense of "Achievement"?
Ugh... I hate achievement whores.
Brucie B @ Feb 5th 2008 4:31PM
Isn't "Accomplishments" the New "Achievements"...
Dentrixed @ Feb 5th 2008 4:04PM
What the study has not realized is that women play the real life game and not spending it hours on end wasting valuable life playing like children!!! GO TO WORK, CLEAN THE HOUSE, TAKE OUT THE TRASH!!!!!
Jack @ Feb 5th 2008 4:29PM
Yeah, women play the game of life. By your rant I would think that the world is ruled by women. Oh wait...
ugg.tryptophan @ Feb 5th 2008 4:41PM
thats no fun
Kim @ Feb 5th 2008 4:13PM
that is a load of garbage. apparantly they dont know that hardcore girl gamers exist who have been gaming since they were 5 or 6 years old... like me
pfft do more research! test the true gamer girls if you want some concrete evidence!
Jack @ Feb 5th 2008 4:29PM
I think your logic is flawed. If you played their test they'd just tell you that you are a gay male trapped inside a woman's body.
The point of the test I thought was to round up a random group of men an women. By testing the hardcore (an extreme) the tests wouldn't do much good.
ugg.tryptophan @ Feb 5th 2008 4:30PM
they only took a sample, its not as if everyone has the same brain activity "The males were just a lot more motivated to succeed."
Raytia @ Feb 5th 2008 4:32PM
I get that point- but it still makes girl gamers out as 'casual' gamers that arent motivated to play games as much as guys. So as a girl gamer when I see things such as this, I get a little annoyed when reading stuff like this.
ugg.tryptophan @ Feb 5th 2008 4:36PM
and by testing a selected group the results would be biased, not everyone is a hardcore gamer, to get concrete results you need a census, which costs billions of dollars
Korova @ Feb 5th 2008 5:33PM
This is not the most carefully designed study and its conclusions are not very carefully made. I dont know how they chose their samples, but I am skeptical their gender sets were representative of the variety and range that exists within the genders.
The article says nothing about how the samples were selected. As a result, the generalization to all women and all men is unwarranted.
In any case, the study was specifically focused on territorial games and mammal males are more territorial than mammal females - its the heritage of the forest.
Ironhead @ Feb 5th 2008 4:32PM
Everyone here crying discrimination, especially Kim, the poster above me, doesn't seem to understand what a study like this means. However "hardcore" you are is entirely irrelevant, you are an exception. The fact that you even have to identify yourself as a "gamer girl" is simple proof that you are a minority, that most "hardcore" gamers are by a wide margin male. They aren't being sexist or saying that women can't play games, simply that most women will not enjoy them as much as most men, which a simple look at most gamers will prove true. Lrn2science, lul.
Raytia @ Feb 5th 2008 4:37PM
I'm not crying discrimination. I know I'm a minority. But their sample feels like it doesn't span all possible female gamers. The goal is to better design games that girls like, now that female gamers are becoming more known, but it feels like it almost stereotypes girl-gamers, almost like all we enjoy is Cooking Mama and Hannah Montana or something else of that nature, when there are females that have tomboyish qualities and interests too.
Saria the Cat @ Feb 5th 2008 6:52PM
I agree, I don't feel like "hardcore girl gamers" are really representative of the population at large. The sample would definitely be skewed if participation was self-voluntary, for of course girls itching to prove themselves as gamers would sign up and completely bias the results. It's like doing a study on brain activity for both genders during nail painting and tons of male nail polish enthusiasts getting butt-hurt because they weren't able to participate and show off.
Brucie B @ Feb 5th 2008 4:33PM
Tell Them Kim!!! lol
ugg.tryptophan @ Feb 5th 2008 4:38PM
dont feed the troll
Lianne @ Feb 5th 2008 4:39PM
It's very hard to apply such a small study to the general population. Also, you tend to find results when you're LOOKING for differences between males and females.
Shimrra @ Feb 5th 2008 4:53PM
lol like this is even news. Wasnt it already proven that men can appreciate 3D graphics better women.
Zegim @ Feb 5th 2008 4:49PM
I cry at the failure of gamers to understand how scientific studies work.
Saria the Cat @ Feb 5th 2008 6:58PM
I rejoice at the future successes of those who do! :)
chase @ Feb 5th 2008 5:40PM
maybe they should make a game that allows you to toy with people's emotions and cause unnecessary drama over little things that don't matter like going to Hooters for the wings or not listening when someone is talking about that girl's dress and how it makes her look fat...
now that'd be a game every woman could relate to.. am i right boys?
lol
Chameleon @ Feb 5th 2008 5:40PM
hmm, im slightly drunk and read that as ....
Science says: Men get more brain as 'reward' for gaming
chase @ Feb 5th 2008 5:43PM
LOL!
That reminds me of a story one stormy night with my girlfriend whilst enjoying a game of Halo 2... the challenge was beating the final boss on legendary whilst... well.. ya
Lars @ Feb 5th 2008 7:38PM
I call BS. Maybe it's just me but I'd either drop the controller or say "hey, hey, get off... I'm trying to play a game here!"
Lars @ Feb 5th 2008 7:35PM
Duh. 95% of games: Made BY men, FOR men.
I'm sure if you had a game company that was all women they'd churn out some stuff that guys don't care about but girls get more "reward" from playing.
t_m @ Feb 5th 2008 11:41PM
I completely agree with this study, especially when it comes to territory control or competitive games.
However, I think that HOARDING games seem to have a much stronger pull for women. Games like Animal Crossing and THe SIms where you aren't competing and are instead merely trying to develop a character and accumulate stuff seem very popular with a lot of girls.
Burnt Meatloaf @ Feb 6th 2008 7:18AM
Oh, don't get me started. Every girl in my family has bags and bags of GBA/DS games of that sort.
Burnt Meatloaf @ Feb 6th 2008 7:16AM
I still think the differences between men and women, on a large scale, are an order of social conditioning. My sister was raised the same way I was. I was not given dump trucks for Christmas while she got Barbie dolls. We were treated the same and shared toys... including our NES.
We both like video games about the same, too, albeit different genres.