The short-term mental health impact of playing video games is “likely too small” to be noticeable, according to a major Oxford University study published on Wednesday (July 27).
“Our study finds little or no evidence of connections between gaming and well-being,” said Andrew K Przybylski, a researcher at the university’s Oxford Internet Institute.
The study surveyed 38,935 gamers from the English-speaking world, asking them to rate their mental well-being and comparing it to the amount of time they spent playing the game in the previous two weeks.
“Many have warned about the potential addictive qualities of video games and their potential harm to players’ well-being, leading to far-reaching and widely contested health policy decisions,” said the study, published by the Royal Society.
In China, children can only play for one hour each day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“Our results show that the impact of time spent playing video games on well-being is probably too small to be perceived subjectively and not credibly different from zero,” the study said.
Game publishers, including Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, provided the researchers with the time each respondent spent playing the game, with their consent.
It followed players from seven titles – Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Apex, Legends, Eve Online, Forza Horizon 4, Gran Turismo Sport and The Crew 2 – over a six-week period, conducting surveys at two-week intervals.
The study authors said more work was needed to identify causal effects over a longer period of time.
“Although we studied the play and well-being of thousands of people across various games, our study barely scratched the surface of gaming in general,” they said.
“Our conclusions about the causal nature of the observed associations are tentative.
“Studies with higher measurement resolution and a longer overall time span are needed to detect possible more transient or slower effects,” the authors said.
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