A study led by Japanese researchers has proven that playing video games is good for you.
Scientists from Nihon University in Tokyo gathered data from nearly 10,00 participants between December 2020 to March 2022, with the results showing that playing video games can relieve stress as well as improving mental health but only if use is limited.
“Our natural experiment showed that video gaming positively impacted mental wellbeing, but gaming for over three hours had decreasing psychological benefits,” the authors wrote in the Nature Human Behaviour peer-reviewed journal (via The Telegraph).
As part of the study, which started during COVID, scientists gave away PS5 and Nintendo Switch consoles during a national shortage. The data found that those with a console had better mental well-being compared to those without, however playing for more than three hours a day had a “detrimental” effect.
Super Mario RPG. Credit: Nintendo.
According to the data, children, women and less-experienced gamers who played a Nintendo Switch saw the most positive outcomes, while it was adult men and childless households who benefited the most from owning a PS5.
Speaking about the importance of the study Pete Etchells, a professor of psychology and science communication at Bath Spa University, said: “The present study is so interesting; it uses a survey-based method that takes advantage of a natural experiment that happened in Japan during Covid to essentially test for causal relationships. The results show that broadly, there was a positive relationship with games console ownership and mental wellbeing.”
“These results are not surprising,” added Daniel Johnson, a psychologist who specialises in video games at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. “They fit with what we know from talking to video-game players for decades.”
However, other scientists have said the impact of the pandemic may have skewed the results, so a similar study would need to be conducted in the future to verify the results.
In other news, Gearbox Software has confirmed when Borderlands 4 will be released via a teaser trailer.
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