Years of action gaming have instilled deep within us an irrational phobia of standing anywhere near red barrels; a syndrome we're sure many of you can sympathize with. But a study from the University of Rochester says those same games might also be helping us make even non-barrel-centric decisions faster.

After giving audio and visual tests to two groups of college students that had recently played either an FPS or The Sims, researchers found that while the two groups got the same amount of answers right, action gamers were able to arrive at those answers about 25 percent faster.

Sadly, the testing had to be discontinued when the FPS players refused to stop marking their triumph by knocking The Sims players to the floor and repeatedly jamming their crotches into the losers' horrified faces.