It seems like a lot of times when something bad happens in the world, video games get a bad press. Now there’s finally a report that may prove gamers aren’t all mass-murdering psychopaths.
A study from the University of Victoria British Columbia in Canada has stated that spending time playing video games when young can lay the groundwork for children being socially responsible and all-round good citizens when they become adults. The experiment was conducted by Dr Kathy Sanford on teenagers between thirteen and seventeen years old over a period of five years, and what emerged was quite interesting. Dr Sanford spoke with Polygon this week to talk about her findings: “I found that the participants were very concerned about ethical and moral decisions, about the nature of what they are doing in the game.” She expanded on this by saying that this was something that she ‘didn’t expect’.
Dr Sanford then showed that the children in the study saw a strong casual effect between the consequences of their actions, and thought long and hard about problem solving: “They have to negotiate with team-members and understand strengths and weaknesses and working with others. Players report a lot more happening than randomly going around shooting people.” She also went on to say to The Globe and Mail that gaming helps kids to learn about leadership and ethical-decision making.
Dr Kathy Sanford from the University of Victoria has studied the upside of video games.
This study seems to go against previous reports and opinions over the years, where it’s been suggested by many that gaming has nothing but a harmful effect on children. An example of this is that if a child plays a title such as Grand Theft Auto (review coming soon), where – let’s face it – the majority of things you do are very questionable, then they’re likely to get themselves a gun and start shooting people; that’s just not the case. Dr Sanford’s report presents a wholly different finding: “Players talk about how it makes them feel when they do something that has negative consequences for people. It makes them feel bad and they don’t like feeling bad.”
So kids, ditch the homework and play video games.
