This really does stick a big stake in the recent priming theories that claim to be able to pick up on very subtle primings [1]. Video games are basically shouting at triggers we all agree are quite primal and almost certainly involving all sorts of parts of the brain, including our very oldest ones, but this staggeringly enormous signal doesn't produce results, and if anything, anti-primes the brain. But we're supposed to believe we can flash up a racial slur for (literally!) imperceptible fractions of a second and our brain makes complicated cognitive decisions based on that, and we have lab tests that can pick that up?
It is not impossible. But the window for it to be true is made rather narrow if visceral video games aren't capable of "priming"; the window for it to be relevant to the world smaller yet.
It lends yet more credence to the idea that the way the priming papers got published in the first place is in much the same way ESP papers can be peer reviewed and get published... our standard for statistical significance in publishing is too low.
[1]: I contrast this with certain ones that we know work, and the field of marketing considers "engineering" rather than science.
It is not impossible. But the window for it to be true is made rather narrow if visceral video games aren't capable of "priming"; the window for it to be relevant to the world smaller yet.
It lends yet more credence to the idea that the way the priming papers got published in the first place is in much the same way ESP papers can be peer reviewed and get published... our standard for statistical significance in publishing is too low.
[1]: I contrast this with certain ones that we know work, and the field of marketing considers "engineering" rather than science.