Casual games yield social and emotional benefits when sought for those purposes, played mindfully, and used within robust social contexts, but negative effects in other contexts¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · no dated study recorded · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Social and emotional benefits occur when games are sought for those purposes, played mindfully, and within robust social contexts. → Kurt Squire 2023 q2 i? The same games played in other contexts, such as when required by a study, can have negative effects on players. → Kurt Squire 2023

Evidence¶

Kurt Squire 2023¶

Kurt Squire, Garrison Wells, Maria J. Anderson-Coto, and Constance Steinkuehler. 2023. Casual Games, Cognition, and Play across the Lifespan: A Critical Synthesis. ACM Games: Research and Practice, Volume 1, Issue 2, Article 14. https://doi.org/10.1145/3594534

q2 · i? · review · r2

The review's interpretive synthesis across its corpus reports "evidence for the social and emotional benefits of casual games" under three conditions: sought for those purposes, played mindfully, and within robust social contexts. No effect sizes are printed for this synthesis-level judgment.

"This research synthesis finds evidence for the social and emotional benefits of casual games when they are sought for these purposes, played mindfully, and within robust social contexts."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Casual games show promise for mitigating anxiety, depression, stress, and low mood across the range of mental health issues examined — related
• Pokémon Go play is associated with improved social well-being, belonging, and connection, and reduced anxiety about leaving the house — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Players of RPGs engage in ethical decision making as part of their game play, and games under the right conditions have the potential to foster critical ethical reasoning — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Action-adventure videogames negatively predict social problem-solving scores while simulation, puzzle, serious and educational videogames predict positively — related