Video game fans: they are not all teenage boys nor do they have worse mental health

A new and controversial study goes against the grain of others and shows that regular video game players do not, in general, have worse mental health than those who use video games little or not at all, and that it is also not true that the players are largely male teenagers.

The practice of playing video games is often linked to isolation, anxiety, and even addiction. However, a group of Argentine researchers has demystified much of these prejudices, thanks to “Ciencia Gamer”, a project that combines science with the use of these games.

“It is called moral panic when, in the face of technological innovations, the fear arises that something bad will happen, which has to do with uncertainty. However, video games are about opportunity and versatility. On the one hand, they can provide answers to a lot of problems and, on the other, they are super adaptable to a lot of needs. They can be great allies,” Guadalupe de la Iglesia, a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) in the Department of Psychology of the University of Palermo (UP), in Argentina, both institutions, and leader of the initiative.

According to Power of Play, an Entertainment Software Association of America survey of nearly 13,000 gamers ages 16 and older in 12 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States), and which admitted more than one answer per question, 69% of people play for fun; 63% to pass the time and another 63% to relieve stress and relax.

In Argentina, according to the latest report from the Argentine Cultural Information System (SInCA), 33% of the population plays video games and the majority does so several times a week. The most chosen types of video games are action, adventure, sports and puzzles such as Candy Crush and Tetris.

To further clarify the issue at the local level, De la Iglesia presented two studies throughout 2024. In the first, published in the academic journal Psykhe, the researcher identified two groups of gamers: one made up mostly of men under 40 years of age, who preferred hardcore games, those more associated with the “gamer identity” (shooters, fighting, action/adventure, survival or strategy), and who were moderate or intense gamers. The second group was made up, to a greater extent, of women aged 40 or older, who preferred casual video games and who chose puzzles or word games.

“We saw that international statistics are replicated quite a bit. For example, the population of these players is distributed evenly by gender, which demystifies the stereotype of the teenage male gamer. In fact, it is also observed that the average age is high, more than 30 years,” De la Iglesia highlighted.

The specialist also used the Gamer Experience Scale and observed that positive and negative experiences are not mutually exclusive, but rather increase with the increase in the use of video games.

“From intuition we would think that if you have positive experiences, you don’t have negative ones. And what I observed is that they occur simultaneously. Positive when you have fun, you feel like you can increase your skills, connect with others or be part of a community. And negative, when you can’t stop playing, stop thinking about the game or feel that playing is work. This allows us to realize that there is something about video games that is great and something that can make us feel bad,” said De la Iglesia.

On the other hand, in a study published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Psychology, the researcher examined the association between mental health, in terms of well-being and psychological symptoms, and the use of video games, in terms of hours of use and types of experiences. The sample was made up of two groups of Argentine participants, one made up of 189 video gamers and another of 91 non-gamer participants.

The results showed that there were no differences in the degree of mental health between players and non-players. “It is a great myth that playing video games makes you sick. If this were the case, all those who use them would have to have more psychological symptoms or less well-being. And that doesn’t happen. I also didn’t find a relationship with the number of hours of play. Although there are those who suggest that problems could appear after a certain number of hours, there is still not much consensus on the matter. The gamers that I studied were very varied; “It would be important to see what happens specifically with those who play many hours per day,” De la Iglesia said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) did not define specific parameters about how many hours it is healthy to play video games per day, although there is a certain consensus that exceeding three hours a day would be an indication that important activities are being left aside, according to De la Iglesia. However, the international health agency does recognize that there are many ways in which the techniques widely used in video games can improve health. For example, to help people with mental disorders or chronic pain.

From left to right: Román Molinero, Nahuel Torres, Leandro Eidman, Guadalupe de la Iglesia and Giselle Femopase, from the research group. (Photo: CyTA-Leloir Agency)

gamer personality

A third study led by De la Iglesia analyzed the personality differences between gamers and non-gamers. Although it is a preprint (not yet peer-reviewed), the hypothesis it raises is that some core characteristics, such as personality, partly predetermine how video games are used and mental health status.

The main conclusion of the work is that there would be no significant differences in personality traits, even taking into account age and gender. “There is no personality profile of the gamer,” said the expert who, however, did notice an apparent association between some personality traits and positive experiences when playing: responsibility, openness to experience and extroversion. “The finding that caught my attention the most is the openness to experience. This represents people who are characterized by being creative, intellectual, who like debate, appreciate art, and are curious. “Those people have more positive experiences when playing,” he commented.

Overall, the study proposes that personality traits that manifest in offline life are also replicated in virtual environments. The study is being evaluated for publication.

Cognitive rehabilitation

Leandro Eidman, doctor in psychology, directs the Institute of Argentine Neurosciences (INAR), located in Resistencia, Chaco, Argentina and is also a member of “Ciencia Gamer”. Last September, he received a postdoctoral fellowship from CONICET to investigate the use of video games as an enhancer in the cognitive rehabilitation of a group of patients with acquired brain damage (for example, due to an injury), one of the main causes of neuropsychological disability in young adults.

In “Video games as a therapeutic tool: acquired brain damage and cognitive rehabilitation”, published in the Argentine Encyclopedia of Mental Health, Eidman explains that conventional cognitive rehabilitation is based on methods that, although effective, lack motivation for patients due to their repetitive nature. Instead, video games offer an alternative that involves entertainment, which maintains the person’s interest while promoting cognitive improvements.

“There is research in which it has been verified that the use of video games positively affects an increase in alertness with improvement in cognitive performance in attentional functions, improvements in reaction time, short and long-term memory, attention and visuospatial functions,” he explains.

“Sometimes in hospitals there is a very long waiting list. Maybe an early intervention can be done with video games while the person waits their turn for rehabilitation,” De la Iglesia proposed in conclusion. (Source: CyTA-Leloir Agency)