Video games have no direct effect on our happiness

Video games, like traditional sports, are by their very nature huge sources of entertainment, socialization, and competition. The thing that can differentiate video games from traditional sports is the direct impact on people’s well-being. The difference, somewhat taboo, is that video games have a negative impact on people’s happiness. that study carried out Oxford university They state that video games have no direct impact on users’ happiness.

For six weeks, the researchers collected data and analyzed the well-being of 38,935 regular gamers of seven video games: Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Apex Legends, EVE Online, Forza Horizon 4, Gran Turismo Sport, Outriders, The Crew 2. They were in charge of looking for active players and introduced them to «Users who played one of these games in the last 2 to 2 months«. To do this, they started an email campaign and recruited players from Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Although the researchers did not consider the number of players to conduct the study, the postal campaign in five months reached more than 1.7 million users. However they were only 38935 Those who cooperated fully and with those who were able to determine the data collection.

Video games do not affect as much as thought

After six weeks of data collection, the researchers concluded that “For better or worse, the direct effects on players’ well-being after spending time playing video games are almost non-existent.«. In other words, video games do not have a significant positive or negative impact on the well-being of users. Could this be the end of the taboo around «How can video games be negative for people«?

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