Overcoming Stress Through Video Games

The next time you're feeling stressed out, you might just want to turn on your PC and play video games to lower your cortisol level. MindHabits, the spin-off company created after researchers from McGill University studied and developed video games that was shown to reduce cortisol, a stress related hormone, is set to release the video game developed by them this week. The video game called MindHabits Trainer PC game is designed to reduce stress and boost confidence.

More than advertising gimmick, the company's claim that their game can actually reduce stress is backed by a study conducted by McGill University and the findings will appear in the October Issue of the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The game was designed by Mark Baldwin, professor at McGill University and his team. They have been designing games that train people to focus on positive feedback in social situations rather than be distracted by criticisms. The MindHabits Trainer PC has a series of fun exercises that help players maintain an optimistic state of mind. According to Dr. Baldwin and his team's findings, playing MindHabits Trainer for five minutes a day can help reduce cortisol and boost the confidence of players in real life.

According to Dr. Baldwin's research, the way a person thinks of himself can actually be learned which means that people can be trained to develop positive mental habits using MindHabits Trainer. MindHabits Trainer uses principles of social intelligence on their mini-games that targets a player's different responses. One example of the mini-games is spotting a smiley face; a player is asked to spot a smiling face in a crowd of frowning faces, according to studies, the game helps train the mind of the player to react to positive information.

The smiley face game was the subject of the recent study conducted by Baldwin's team. They recruited 23 Montreal-based call center employees to play the game each workday morning for week. The employees filled out questionnaire about stress and confidence everyday and their cortisol levels were tested on the last day of the experiment. The results of the experiment showed that there was a 17 percent reduction in cortisol production of persons in the group that played the smiley face game compared to a controlled group that played a similar game but without the smiling face.

According to Dr. Baldwin, the game could be used to help people cope with the anxiety of public speaking or meeting new people, it can also help athletes concentrate on their game rather than worry about performing poorly.

MindHabits Trainer is available for PC and costs $19.99. The game can played or purchased online at the MindHabits website.

SOURCE:

MindHabits Press Release, "MindHabits launches new video game designed to help reduce stress and boost confidence". MindHabits.com.

McGill University Press Release, "Video Game Shown to Cut Cortisol." www.McGill.ca