Playing video games for better, not worse
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Some video games can make children
kinder and more likely to help---not hurt---other people.
That's the
conclusion of new research published in the current (June 2009) issue of
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, a top-tier, peer-reviewed academic
journal.
The article presents the findings of three separate studies,
conducted in different countries with different age groups, and using different
scientific approaches. All the studies find that playing games with prosocial
content causes players to be more helpful to others after the game is over.
The report is co-authored by a consortium of researchers from the United
States, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.
"Dozens of studies have
documented a relationship between violent video games and aggressive behaviors,"
said lead author Douglas Gentile, an Iowa State University psychologist. "But
this is one of the first that has documented the positive effects of playing
prosocial games."
Prosocial video games involve characters who help and
support each other in nonviolent ways.
"These studies show the same kind
of impact on three different age groups from three very different cultures,"
said Brad Bushman, a University of Michigan co-author of the report. "In
addition, the studies use different analytic approaches---correlational,
longitudinal and experimental. The resulting triangulation of evidence provides
the strongest possible proof that the findings are both valid and
generalizable."
"These studies document that children and adolescents
learn from practicing behaviors in games," said Rowell Huesmann, a U-M co-author
of the report.
One study examined the link between video game habits and
prosocial behavior among 727 secondary students in Singapore, with a mean age of
13. Students listed their favorite games and rated how often game characters
helped, hurt or killed other characters. They also answered questions about how
likely they were to spend time and money helping people in need, to cooperate
with others and share their belongings, and to react aggressively in various
situations.
As in numerous other studies, the researchers found a strong
correlation between playing violent video games and hurting others. But the
study also found a strong correlation between playing prosocial games and
helping others.
The second study analyzed the long-term connection
between video game habits and prosocial behavior in nearly 2,000 Japanese
children ages 10 to 16. Participants completed a survey about their exposure to
prosocial video games, and rated how often they had helped other people in the
last month. Three to four months later, they were surveyed again, and
researchers found a significant connection between exposure to prosocial games
and helpful behavior months later.
"This suggests there is an upward
spiral of prosocial gaming and helpful behavior, in contrast to the downward
spiral that occurs with violent video gaming and aggressive behavior," said
Bushman, a professor of communications and psychology and a research professor
at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR).
For the third study, the
researchers carried out an experiment with 161 U.S. college students, with a
mean age of 19. After playing either a prosocial, violent, or neutral game,
participants were asked to assign puzzles to a randomly selected partner. They
could choose from puzzles that were easy, medium or hard to complete. Their
partner could win $10 if they solved all the puzzles. Those who played a
prosocial game were considerably more helpful than others, assigning more easy
puzzles to their partners. And those who had played violent games were
significantly more likely to assign the hardest puzzles.
"Taken
together, these findings make it clear that playing video games is not in itself
good or bad for children," Bushman said."The type of content in the game has a
bigger impact than the overall amount of time spent playing."
###
University of Michigan
U have to see what kind of games they are playing.
Not all games are 'bad'....