25+ Positive & Negative Effects of Video Games, According to Studies - The first knowledge sharing application in Vietnam

Updated January 8, 2023
by Ronaldo Tumbokon

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Are video games good or bad for you? It can be both

Video games are frowned upon by parents as time-wasters, and worse, some education experts think that these games corrupt the brain. Playing violent video games are easily blamed by the media and some experts as the reason why some young people become violent or commit extreme anti-social behavior. But many scientists and psychologists find that video games can actually have many benefits – the main one is making kids smart. Video games may actually teach kids high-level thinking skills that they will need in the future.

“Video games change your brain,” according to University of Wisconsin psychologist C. Shawn Green. Playing video games change the brain’s physical structure the same way as do learning to read, playing the piano, or navigating using a map. Much like exercise can build muscle, the powerful combination of concentration and rewarding surges of neurotransmitters like dopamine strengthen neural circuits that can build the brain.

According to Marc Palaus, author of the study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, there is a broad consensus in the scientific community that playing video games not only changes how the brain performs, but also its structure.

Below are the good and bad effects of video games – their benefits and disadvantages, according to researchers and child experts:

Are Video Games Good for You? The Positive Effects of Video Games

When your child plays video games, it gives his brain a real workout. In many video games, the skills required to win involve abstract and high level thinking. These skills are not even taught at school.

The main benefits of playing video games involve enhancing mental skills that include:

Problem solving and logic – When a child plays a game such as The Incredible Machine, Angry Birds or Cut The Rope, he trains his brain to come up with creative ways to solve puzzles and other problems in short bursts
Hand-eye coordination, fine motor and spatial skills. In shooting games, the character may be running and shooting at the same time. This requires the real-world player to keep track of the position of the character, where he/she is heading, his speed, where the gun is aiming, if the gunfire is hitting the enemy, and so on. All these factors need to be taken into account, and then the player must then coordinate the brain’s interpretation and reaction with the movement in his hands and fingertips. This process requires a great deal of eye-hand coordination and visual-spatial ability to be successful. Research also suggests that people can learn iconic, spatial, and visual attention skills from video games. There have been even studies with adults showing that experience with video games is related to better surgical skills. Also, a reason given by experts as to why fighter pilots of today are more skillful is that this generation’s pilots are being weaned on video games.
Planning, resource management and logistics. The player learns to manage resources that are limited, and decide the best use of resources, the same way as in real life. This skill is honed in strategy games such as SimCity, Age of Empires, and Railroad Tycoon. Notably, The American Planning Association, the trade association of urban planners and Maxis, the game creator, have claimed that SimCity has inspired a lot of its players to take a career in urban planning and architecture.
Multitasking, simultaneous tracking of many shifting variables and managing multiple objectives. In strategy games, for instance, while developing a city, an unexpected surprise like an enemy might emerge. This forces the player to be flexible and quickly change tactics.

Cognitive researcher Daphne Bavalier talks about how video games can help us learn, focus and, fascinatingly, multitask.

Quick thinking, making fast analysis and decisions. Sometimes the player does this almost every second of the game giving the brain a real workout. According to researchers at the University of Rochester, led by Daphne Bavelier, a cognitive scientist, games simulating stressful events such as those found in battle or action games could be a training tool for real-world situations. The study suggests that playing action video games primes the brain to make quick decisions. Video games can be used to train soldiers and surgeons, according to the study. Importantly, decisions made by action-packed video game players are no less accurate. According to Bavelier, “Action game players make more correct decisions per unit time. If you are a surgeon or you are in the middle of a battlefield, that can make all the difference.”
Accuracy – Action games, according to a study by the University of Rochester, train the player’s brain to make faster decisions without losing accuracy. In today’s world, it is important to move quickly without sacrificing accuracy.
Strategy and anticipation – Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good For You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter, calls this “telescoping.” The gamer must deal with immediate problems while keeping his long-term goals on his horizon.
Situational awareness – – Defense News reported that the Army include video games to train soldiers to improve their situational awareness in combat. Many strategy games also require the player to become mindful of sudden situational changes in the game and adapt accordingly.
Developing reading and math skills – The young gamer reads to get instructions, follow storylines of games, and get information from the game texts. Also, using math skills is important to win in many games that involves quantitative analysis like managing resources.
Perseverance – In higher levels of a game, the player usually fails the first time around, but he keeps on trying until he succeeds and move on to the next level.
Pattern recognition – Games have internal logic in them, and the player figures it out by recognizing patterns.
Estimating skills
Inductive reasoning and hypothesis testing – James Paul Gee, professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that playing a video game is similar to working through a science problem. Like a student in a laboratory, the gamer must come up with a hypothesis. For example, the gamer must constantly try out combinations of weapons and powers to use to defeat an enemy. If one does not work, he changes hypothesis and try the next one. Video games are goal-driven experiences, says Gee, which are fundamental to learning.
Mapping – The gamer use in-game maps or build maps on his head to navigate around virtual worlds.
Memory – Playing first person shooter games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield series enables the player to effectively judge what information should be stored in his working memory and what can be discarded considering the task at hand, according to a study published in the Psychological Research.
Concentration – A study conducted by the Appalachia Educational Laboratory reveal that children with attention-deficit disorder who played Dance Dance Revolution improve their reading scores by helping them concentrate.
Improved ability to rapidly and accurately recognize visual information – A study from Beth Israel Medical Center NY, found a direct link between skill at video gaming and skill at keyhole, or laparoscopic, surgery. Doctors who spent at least three hours a week playing video games made about 37 % fewer mistakes in surgery and performed the task 27% faster than non-gaming surgeons. Another study found that people who play video games on a regular basis are better at registering visual data and are therefore quicker visual learners. They are also more resistant to perceptual interference, and are therefore able to learn for a longer period of time in distracting environments.
Reasoned judgments
Taking risks – Winning in any game involves a player’s courage to take risks. Most games do not reward players who play safely.
How to respond to challenges
How to respond to frustrations
How to explore and rethink goals
Teamwork and cooperation when played with others – Many multiplayer games such as Team Fortress 2 involve cooperation with other online players in order to win. These games encourage players to make the most of their individual skills to contribute to the team. According to a survey by Joan Ganz Cooney Center, teachers report that their students become better collaborators after using digital games in the classroom.
Management – Management simulation games such as Rollercoaster Tycoon and Zoo tycoon teach the player to make management decisions and manage the effective use of finite resources. Other games such as Age of Empires and Civilization even simulate managing the course of a civilization.
Simulation, real world skills. The most well known simulations are flight simulators, which attempt to mimic the reality of flying a plane. All of the controls, including airspeed, wing angles, altimeter, and so on, are displayed for the player, as well as a visual representation of the world, and are updated in real time.
Non-English speaking players report learning English by playing games.

See also List of Video Games That May Be Good for the Brain

More Benefits of Video Games:

Video games introduce your child to computer technology and the online world. You should recognize that we are now living in a high-tech, sophisticated world. Video games make your child adapt and be comfortable with the concepts of computing. This is particularly important for girls who typically are not as interested in high technology as much as boys.
Video games allow you and your child to play together and can be a good bonding activity. Some games are attractive to kids as well as adults, and they could be something that they share in common. When your child knows more than you, he can teach you how to play and this allows you to understand your child’s skills and talents.
Video games make learning fun. Your kid likes games because of the colors, the animation, the eye candy, as well as the interactivity and the challenge and the rewards of winning. The best way to learn is when the learner is having fun at the same time. That’s why video games are natural teachers. Having fun gives your kid motivation to keep on practicing, which is the only way to learn skills. Video games is also capable of making difficult subjects such as math fun.
Video games can make your child creative. A study by the Michigan State University’s Children and Technology Project found a relation between video game playing and greater creativity, regardless of gender, race or type of video game played. (In contrast, use of cell phones, the Internet and computers other than video games was unrelated to creativity, the study found).
A long-term study by the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published in Scientific Reports found that there is a beneficial causal effect of video games on cognition. American kids, both boys and girls, between 9 and 10 who spent an above-average time playing video games increased their intelligence scores by 2.5 I.Q. points above the average after two years. Other forms of screen time like watching videos or social video has neither positive nor negative effect on a child’s intelligence.
Playing video games is shown to provide young people with a route into reading and improve their confidence in reading skills, encourages their creativity through writing, support positive communication between family and friends, increases empathy, and supports mental wellbeing, according to a study by the UK’s National Literacy Trust.
University of Geneva scientists who tested an action video game for children found out from their study that playing the action video game enhances reading skills – even though the game did not require reading activity. The skills that players improved on included “vision, the deployment of attention, working memory, and cognitive flexibility”, according to Angela Pasqualotto, the first author of the study. These are the same functions essential to the mastery of reading. In fact, the scientists found a 7-fold improvement in attentional control in children who played the game vs. those who didn’t, and this was maintained at a follow-up test 6 months later.
Video games can improve your child’s decision making speed. People who played action-based video and computer games made decisions 25% faster than others without sacrificing accuracy, according to a study from the University of Rochester. Other studies suggests that most expert gamers can make choices and act on them up to six times a second—four times faster than most people, and can pay attention to more than six things at once without getting confused, compared to only four by the average person. Surprisingly, the violent action games that often worry parents most had the strongest beneficial effect on the brain, according to cognitive neuroscientist Daphne Bavelier, who studies the effect of action games at Switzerland’s University of Geneva and the University of Rochester in New York.
Another study from 2022 by Georgia State University researchers that combined brain imaging with a decision-making task also suggests that regular video game players made faster and more accurate decisions than those who rarely play. Video game players show enhanced activity in the brain regions for visuomotor processing.
Action video game players have an increased ability to be mentally flexible, that is, being able to switch from one task to another, compared to non-gamers according to a study. This skill is important in a world that’s highly dependent on technology which allows distinct task to be available on a single device such as a smartphone or computer.
Video games increase your child’s self-confidence and self-esteem as he masters games. In many games, the levels of difficulty are adjustable. As a beginner, your kid begins at the easy level and by constant practicing and slowly building skills, he becomes confident in handling more difficult challenges. Since the cost of failure is lower, he does not fear making mistakes. He takes more risks and explores more. Your kid can transfer this attitude to real life.
Video games give your child a feeling of happiness or well-being, which is a human psychological need, according to Berni Good, a cyberpsychologist. In addition to giving your child a sense of competence or mastery when he progresses through game levels, video gaming also helps him relate to others in a meaningful way when he shares his gaming experiences with others in multiplayer gaming or in social media. It also gives him a feeling of being a master of his own destiny.
Also, a study published by the University of Oxford, suggests that school-age adolescents who are spending considerable time gaming do not experience negative well-being impact, although this is not the case for everybody. A few heavy gamers (1 in 12 adolescents), especially those with traumatic experiences and mental health issues who used gaming as a coping mechanism, reported well-being issues.
Games that involve multiple players encourage your child to work cooperatively to achieve his goals. Your kid learns to listen to the ideas of others, formulate plans with other kids, and distribute tasks based on skills. Some online games are even played internationally, and this can introduce your kid to players of different nationalities and cultures. This fosters friendships among different people.
Games from new consoles, specifically those from Meta Quest and other Virtual Reality platforms, involves moving the body, sometimes as intensely as an aerobic workout. Known as “exergaming”, active video gaming may be the perfect introduction to helping people be more active.
Video games make players’ visions become more sensitive to slightly different shades of color, according to a University of Rochester study. This is called contrast sensitivity, and observed particularly in first person shooter games players. “When people play action games, they’re changing the brain’s pathway responsible for visual processing,” according to lead researcher Daphne Bavelier. The training might be helping the visual system to make better use of the information it receives.
Video games may improve eyesight. Studies have shown that video gaming have better than average eyesight. A study performed by researchers from McMaster University has also found that playing video games could help improve eyesight by teaching the brain to spot small details, follow movements and spot subtle light changes, at least for people with visual difficulties. Another study by vision scientists at the University of Rochester and Vanderbilt University found that children with poor vision see vast improvement in their peripheral vision after only eight hours of training via kid-friendly video games.
In addition, one neuroscience research suggests that expert players of action real-time strategy games like League of Legends become better at allocating brain resources between visual stimuli that compete for attention. The study shows that these players have faster information processing, allocate more cognitive power to individual visual stimuli and allocate limited resources between successive stimuli more effective through time. Moreover, the effect seems to have a long-term effect on the brain, and the study’s author concludes that these games can be a powerful tool for cognitive training.
Video games help children with dyslexia read faster and with better accuracy, according to a study by the journal Current Biology. In addition, spatial and temporal attention also improved during action video game training. Attentional improvement can directly translate into better reading abilities. Another study suggests that just one hour of gaming can improve visual selective attention, which is how scientists refer to the brain’s ability to focus while simultaneously disregarding less relevant information.
Dr. Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscientist at the University of California states that playing first person shooter games such as Call of Duty have shown to have a “benefit on high congnitive abilities” including focusing for long periods and multi-tasking. He even suggests that these games can be prescribed to children who are struggling to focus in class.
Kids are not necessarily drawn to video games because of their violence. The attraction lies in their being rewarded by awesome displays of explosions, fireworks, and yes, blood splattering. Also, violent games have the most emotional appeal for kids. But these factors are only secondary to what kids actually enjoy in these games – the opportunity to develop and master skills and have the freedom to make choices in the game universe.
Violent video games may act as a release of pent-up aggression and frustration of your kid. When your kid vents his frustration and anger in his game, this diffuses his stress. Games can provide a positive aggression outlet the same way as football and other violent sports. A research suggests that the outlet provided by violent games may make gamers with violent tendencies less likely to commit real world crimes
Playing video games is safer than having your teens do drugs, alcohol and street racing in the real world.
Experts believe that parents playing video games with their kids can boost better communication between them.
A study done by researchers at North Carolina State University, York University and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology concluded that playing online games do not replace offline social lives, but is expanding it. Loners are the outliers in gaming, not the norm.
Research from the University of Vermont involving more than 2000 children between 9 and 10 years old, published in 2022, suggests that video gamers perform better on tests of memory and impulse control vs. non-gamers. Frequent gamers exhibit significant improvements in terms of faster reaction time, impulse control, and working memory, which are caused by changes in brain function. Video gamers are also better at implicit temporal processing, which is an automatic and unconscious process of processing time and preparing to timely react based on expectations of how a person’s situation will unfold.
A 2013 study by the Berlin’s Max Planck Institute for Human Development and St. Hedwig-Hospital found a significant gray matter increase in the right hippocampus, the right prefrontal cortex and the cerebellum of those who played Super Mario 64 for 30 minutes a day over two months. These regions of the brain are crucial for spatial navigation, strategic planning, working memory and motor performance. Indeed, the increased gray matter in these parts of the brain is positively correlated with better memory. Decreased gray matter is correlated with bipolar disorder and dementia. What’s also striking is that those who enjoyed playing the game has a more pronounced gain in gray matter volume. The study suggests that video game training could be used to counteract known risk factors for smaller hippocampus and prefrontal cortex volume in, for example, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and neurodegenerative disease.
Another group of researchers from the Chinese University of Electronic Science and Technology and the Australian Macquarie University in Sydney found a correlation between playing action video games and increased gray matter volume in the brain.
The benefits of improving memory in video gamers extend for years, even after players don’t play anymore. According to Marc Palaus, one of the study’s authors, “People who were avid gamers before adolescence, despite no longer playing, performed better with the working memory tasks, which require mentally holding and manipulating information to get a result.” Although different genres of video games affect cognitive functions differently, all games involve elements that make people want to continue playing, and that they gradually get harder and present a constant challenge. “These two things are enough to make it an attractive and motivating activity, which, in turn, requires constant and intense use of our brain’s resources.”
Other studies found that playing video games change the structure of the brain. Brain regions involved in attention were more efficient in gamers, and regions related to visuospatial skills that were both bigger and more efficient.
Another study published in Scientific Reports have found that Action Video Gamers have more gray matter and better integration of brain networks associated with attention and sensorimotor function.
A Bristol University research shows that the “gamification” of learning can reduce the activity of a particular brain network which is responsible for mind wandering. When designed and developed properly, computer-based games can have a beneficial effect on learning.
A number of research, including the one done in Ruhr-University Bochum show that video gamers have an advantage at learning compared to non-gamers. In their test, video gamers performed significantly better than non-gamers in a learning competition, and gamers showed an increased activity in the brain areas relevant for learning. According to the lead author Sabrina Schenk, “Our study shows that gamers are better in analyzing a situation quickly, to generate new knowledge and to categorize facts — especially in situations with high uncertainties.”
A study published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology in 2016 suggests that “video game use is not associated with an increased risk of mental health problems. On the contrary, the data presented here suggest that video games are a protective factor, especially regarding peer relationship problems for the children who are the most involved in video games. Finally, video games seem to be linked to better intellectual functioning and academic achievement.”
Another study suggests that playing some video games may even overcome the cognitive skills affected by poverty like focus, self-control, and memory, and may help reduce the achievement gaps related to poverty that are seen in school.
In 2020, after reviewing data from multiple studies in more than 600 children, the US Food and Drugs Administration approved a video game for the first time as a treatment. The game, called EndeavorRx, can be prescribed for kids with combined-type ADHD, or who have difficulty staying focused or paying attention, and the prescription can be covered with insurance. The game is meant to act as delivery system for algorithms that can strengthen neural networks in the brain connected to ADHD. In 2021, a University of Utah study found that games reduced isolation and depression in depressed patients aged 60-85. This could be a start for other games to be developed and considered as a therapeutic for other mental conditions which may include anxiety or depression, as well as many types of mental illnesses.
A study that compares media use with video gaming suggests that media multitasking specifically, that is, consuming media like movies or music while doing another activity, was mostly correlated with negative mental health, while playing video games was associated with faster responding and better mental health.
A study by the Oxford University using industry data on actual play time for Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville and Animal Crossing: New Horizons suggests that time spent playing games with social features, where players interacted with game characters controlled by other humans, is positively associated with well-being. Experiences of competence and social connection with others through play may contribute to this. Professor Andrew Przbylski further states that “Our findings show video games aren’t necessarily bad for your health; there are other psychological factors which have a significant effect on a persons’ well-being. In fact, play can be an activity that relates positively to people’s mental health – and regulating video games could withhold those benefits from players.”
Games like Fortnight, although having violent aspects, actually promotes pro-social behavior, according to a study. The researchers hypothesized that this is probably caused by the violent game yielding positive emotions or overall satisfaction of psychological needs, which is an outcome of enjoying the game.
A study involving college students has found that games with “pro-social” content, where playing requires non-violent cooperation and coordination with others in order to win, influence students to exhibit helpful behavior in real life (while those playing “violent” games exhibit hurtful behavior).
Video games can stimulate your child’s interest in technology, and can be gateway to learn technological skills such as coding or programming.
Also, video games may actually help your child find a job in the future. Employers from various industries are actually find résumés that include backgrounds in making or playing videogames a positive because they think video gamers have online collaboration, problem solving and other critical workplace skills.
Finally, according to a study, gamers actually tend to be more social, more successful and more educated than people who make fun of them.
Considering all these, be reminded again that the type of genre affects the brain differently, and one should not generalize that all video games have the same effect or benefit. For example, the researchers of a study hypothesize that playing strategy games result in improving memory tasks, while playing action games that stimulate the limbic area and elicit emotional arousal might be beneficial to those with mood disorders.

See also: How to choose a video game for your child and yourself

Are Video Games Bad for You? The Negative Effects of Video Games

About the author:
Ronaldo Tumbokon is a researcher/writer who works in media, and writes about the effects of technology, toys, books and others on children’s minds.

See also:
Educational Toys and Gift Ideas to Help Make Your Kids Smart
The Best Educational Apps for Toddler and Babies

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