It's high time that I confessed to you all my sordid gamer past. While I may appear to you as a woman of refinement and culture, the truth is that I spent most of my first two decades on this green earth thinking nonstop about video games. I’m not exaggerating: one of my most vivid early memories is of sitting in class as a first-grader, seething at the indignity of having to be “learning things” instead of tending to my Neopets.

Our society tends to take a pretty dim view of gaming. At best, video games are seen as a frivolous waste of time; at worst, as precursors to violent behavior. But a growing number of researchers might beg to differ. More and more, games are being embraced as supportive tools for our education, cognitive development, and overall well-being. 

That last area is one that’s near and dear to TDL’s heart. Over the past couple of years, digital health & wellness has been one of our major focuses: we’ve worked on apps to help users improve their mental health, reduce their risk of a heart attack, and manage liver disease. Game thinking is a powerful behavioral lever that can help people improve their own health outcomes. 

In today’s newsletter, we’re diving into the emerging literature on video games and their behavioral benefits — with a special focus on the surprising ways that gaming can support our mental health.

Have you leveraged game mechanics in your own life? Whether you're a product designer incorporating gamification into your own work 

Until next time,
Katie and the gamers @ TDL

Thanks to Sarah Chudleigh for her help researching and writing this newsletter.

Games help us learn by doing. The experiential nature of video games allows for active learning. Plenty of so-called “serious games” — games designed for reasons beyond pure entertainment — use this aspect to educate their audiences without coming across as overly preachy. Games like these have been shown to help boost healthy eating behaviors, our ability to empathize with out-groups, and our knowledge of COVID prevention practices.

Games can make us happier. All else being equal, teenagers who played video games scored higher on metrics of psychological well-being than those who never played them at all. One reason for this might be that moderate gamers use video games to cathartically blow off steam. 

They can also improve cognition. Scientists at the University of Vermont found that children whose daily gaming time exceeded the American Academy of Pediatrics’ screentime guidelines did better on cognitive tests. The video game players were both faster and more accurate on cognitive tasks, and even had greater brain activity in the regions associated with attention and memory.

The link between gaming and aggression is unclear. Though video gaming has gotten a bad rap in past research, some of this perception may be due to publication bias. In fact, after accounting for this bias, meta-analyses have found no link between playing violent video games and increased aggression.