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If you play video games for several hours a day, don’t listen to those who criticize your hobby — because scientists say that it can effectively reduce stress.
New research confirmed that there is no difference between aggressive play and not. The team, led by researcher Gary Wagener, took A Plague Tale: Requiem. Scientists made participants go through controlled stress and then play — in aggressive moments of the game and vice versa. The results showed that in both cases, the level of physiological stress dropped. Even if the players themselves did not always realize it.
The study involved 82 people aged 18 to 40, 42 of whom were women. Most of them were already familiar with gaming and spent 4-5 hours a week playing games. Before sitting down at the gamepad, all participants took the SECPT, a well-known stress-inducing test where a person has to immerse their hand in ice water (~4°C) for three minutes under the supervision of a researcher who asks additional questions. After that, everyone was divided into two groups — one played the violent scenes of A Plague Tale: Requiem, and the other group played the calm scenes.
During the study, the researchers used ECGs, collected saliva samples to measure cortisol (a stress hormone), and gave the players questionnaires. The participants themselves said that they felt more tense during hardcore moments. However, physiologically, both groups showed a decrease in stress after 25 minutes.
«This dissociation between self-assessment and physiological stress suggests that people may misjudge their own state of arousal», — the authors of the study concluded.
Probably, tense scenes seemed more difficult or intense to the players. Therefore, they thought they were under more stress than they actually were.
Plague Tale: Requiem is an adventure game about brothers and sisters surviving the plague in France. The study used it, which made it possible to compare the impact of scenes with different emotional intensity — from battles to quiet plot points. However, the researchers emphasize that the results cannot be automatically transferred to all games.
Interestingly, the results are consistent with large-scale surveys: 89% of gamers say that video games help them relieve stress. The game gives a sense of control, achievement, and distraction from routine, all of which reduce anxiety. But excessive enthusiasm, lack of sleep, and online toxicity, on the contrary, spoil the effect. As well as the genre: fast-paced competitions or PvP can cause as much stress as calming. So now you can open with a clear conscience top games that promote mental health and reduce stress.
Source: Techspot