Study finds AR/VR sports activities video games enhance psychological well being and social connection

Physical sports activities have lengthy been identified to assist with nervousness and psychological well being. But can augmented and digital actuality sports activities video games enhance psychological well-being and cut back loneliness? Researchers at Michigan State University’s Department of Kinesiology say sure.

Assistant professors Sanghoon Kim and Sangchul Park, at MSU’s College of Education, led a study to discover layered questions on the psychological advantages of utilizing augmented/digital actuality, or AR/VR, expertise.

Published within the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, the examine exhibits that enjoying AR/VR sports activities video games can promote psychological well-being by serving to gamers really feel related to others and interact in real-time communication. More curiously, the optimistic results of feeling socially current have been even stronger for these experiencing loneliness.

“These findings remind us that psychological well-being is multifaceted,” stated Kim and Park, each lead authors on the examine. “Even in gaming, it’s shaped not only by what people experience in virtual environments, but also by how those experiences connect with their real-life relationships and social ties.”

Methodology

The examine analyzed outcomes from a survey of 345 people who performed numerous AR/VR sports activities video games, corresponding to desk tennis, bowling or billiards. These video games could be discovered on platforms like Wii Sports (Nintendo), Home Sports (Meta) and others.

The recruited contributors voluntarily accomplished a questionnaire to evaluate their sport involvement, psychological well-being, loneliness and different components.

“The importance of these findings is to show that well-being is a complex and multidimensional construct that can be more fully understood when both individuals’ sources of enjoyment—for example, games—and their social experiences—for example, loneliness—are considered simultaneously,” Kim and Park stated.

Research findings

Researchers discovered that those that have been extra engaged in gaming confirmed increased ranges of psychological well-being. This discovering offers beneficial insights into the continued debate on the benefits and downsides of gaming involvement, including new views from AR/VR gaming.

They additionally discovered that AR/VR sports activities video games can create a robust sense of being with others through the use of avatars, real-time communication and nonverbal cues. Importantly, these social connections not solely create a shared presence but in addition play a key function in bettering gamers’ psychological well-being.

“When people feel present with others through avatars or virtual interaction, the experience becomes more than just a game,” stated Kim. “That’s the power of social presence.”

The findings additionally broaden conventional concepts about on-line interplay, exhibiting that AR/VR gaming goes past textual content to incorporate richer, extra human-like methods of connecting.

Users who gamed extra usually and who skilled loneliness of their every day lives have been extra prone to expertise a optimistic psychological profit. The authors speculated that AR/VR sports activities video games is perhaps provided into therapeutic interventions for these experiencing loneliness or psychological well being challenges.

Looking forward

Still, the researchers say AR/VR sports activities video games should not a catch-all resolution for resolving loneliness. Some customers, they discovered, should really feel uneasy about speaking and interacting in digital settings, making it tougher for them to develop a way of belonging by way of gaming.

It’s one of many causes the researchers encourage practitioners and policymakers to additionally take into account regulating how AR/VR sports activities video games are used to help psychological well being and engagement.

“The study revealed not all individuals benefit from social AR/VR sport gaming,” in keeping with the examine, which was co-authored with Jun-Phil Uhm at Inha University and Sungsook Ahn at Cheongju University. “This highlights the importance of educating users, practitioners and policymakers on how to harness its potential while being mindful of its possible drawbacks.”