Console yourself – research finds gaming may actually boost mental health

A study of nearly 100,000 people in Japan has found that gaming may be good for the player's mental health, contrary to the prevailing narrative around the popular pastime. While popular opinion holds that video gaming can be bad for you, and the World Health Organization has labeled gaming disorder as a health condition, …

[ArrZarr]

While I'm all for reducing the social stigma of gaming as a hobby (why is it viewed so differently to watching TV all evening or scrolling through your social media app of choice), I would be very interested to see a study like this that compares the mental health effects of various genres.

There are some genres out there which have a reputation for their toxic communities (Looking at you, MOBAs) - and it would be fascinating to see if these genres have different effects on mental state or health to city builders.

[Anonymous Coward]

You've whacked the mole squarely on the head IMHO! Online Scrabble, crossword puzzles, and Sepuku, are great to awaken neural connections and mental abilities (brain training). First-person shooter games help with those brain networks responsible for quick decision making, MOBAs strengthen strategic thinking nerves, and GTA is superb for sensory acuity and key driving skills. The downsides are likely developments of myopia, diabetes, Quervain’s tenosynovitis, and morbid obesity (linked Harvard piece). Not really a healthy Olympics-like activity, unlike Sumo wrestling and its striking mawashis!

But then there's addiction and sociopathy (linked Daily Mail hyperbole) where just about every single mass-murderer of children, innocents, and parents, was both a loner, and an avid gamer ... so much for a balanced lifestyle! (lucky for us all that not *all* gamers are so bent!)

[Anonymous Coward]

Epic typo!

I think you meant Sudoku there. Sepuku is likely to stop you developing diabetes, obesity etc., but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Epic typo!

No no it’s just extreme first person sudoku

[Mike 137]

Definitions?

From the paper: "The primary outcomes of interest were two facets of well-being, specifically mental health and life satisfaction. The Japanese translation of the K6 was used to measure mental health status among participants"

K6 is the six point Kessler Psychological Distress Scale "... developed to provide short screens for past month non-specific psychological distress in population samples, with the particular aim of maximizing precision in the clinical range of the distribution (ie the 90th-99th percentile range)".¹ As it essentially measures mental distress (p. 2 shows the extended 10-point version) it doesn't seem the optimum measure of "increased mental health". Furthermore, it was designed for subjects with an English-speaking culture, so it might not transfer well to Japan. The SWLS used here to indicate "life satisfaction" is more positive in emphasis and (ostensibly) more universally applicable across cultures. But, importantly, both scales rely entirely on delayed subjective reporting, so the conditions under which the tests are conducted will inevitably (and arbitrarily) bias the results.

So this looks like a rather conventional statistically based analysis of wobbly data that generalises to a global population, ignoring any contributions of local culture to the results.

_{1: Common measures of mental health, personality and temperament}

.

[Plest]

Moderation in all things

Most things won't do you much harm if you do them in moderate doses. Does the study take into account the other factors around gaming? Do people play moderately, do they socialise with family, manage to get to work on time, eat properly and exercise, as well as finding time to play games.

My wife and I have been gamers since we were teenagers and we're in our 50s now, kids have left home so we have time and money to play co-ops games. We tend to stick to games where you have to work together and be social with other players online, firm favourite is the pirate game Sea of Thieves. My wife is partially disabled so gaming offers her a little bit of escapism but we both have other hobbies, she knits, codes and cooks and I do outdoor photography and cycling.

Gaming in of itself is not a bad thing, but it's like drinking or smoking the Mary J, just don't over do this stuff and you'll probably be alright for the most part.

[Anonymous Coward]

Games Night

I have a weekly night of gaming, and find myself feeling better for it.

Perhaps in a few years we'll get prescriptions for 10 games of Robotron 2084, 1 gold star on any level of Super Mario Galaxy, and a cool down of any 2 levels of Doom 2.

[MachDiamond]

All things in moderation

I know a couple of people with 'gamer' kids that are 'ing useless consumers of O2 because of it. I also had a friend that used to like to play Grand Turismo, but he didn't spend every free moment doing that.

So while it can be a good thing to have some mindless hand-eye coordination practice from time to time, addictions of any sort are bad by definition.

[ArrZarr]

Re: All things in moderation

Oh, I know what you mean. I got hooked on breathing as a baby and just don't seem to have been able to kick the habit!

[Snake]

"Digital athlete"?

So now doing something virtual counts as doing it in the real world?

[Ian Johnston]

Let's wait, shall we, until we discover whether this is one of the very few psychological studies which can be replicated. It's about 85% junk science, so the odds aren't great.

[Chet Mannly]

Or is it more to do with winning the lottery?

The subjects in this won a lottery to get the console (run due to the shortage).

So just owning the console gave them a mental health benefit as it was something they won and probably also gave them a benefit from playing as it reminded them of the thing they had won.

I don't see how this has been corrected for in the article. It's plausible that this study found benefits while others didn't just because they were studying lottery winners...

[ParaHandy]

Re: Or is it more to do with winning the lottery?

Less than ten percent of the participants of the study were involved in the lottery. 8800 ish out of 97000 ish. Still enough to skew the results.

[Anonymous Coward]

playing Total War series motivates me to study history. I've read most of Europa Barbarorum's bibliography. I can give a lecture in phalanx mechanics though admittedly not as good as the late Donald Kagan.

who says games are bad, aside from the NRA and Tipper Gore?