Wdo you want to be a better decision maker? Buy an Xbox or a PlayStation.
While detractors may write them off as a waste of time, video games actually have a number of side benefits that are extremely helpful to business leaders. In fact, a recent study shows that people who play video games often show improved brain activity and heightened decision-making skills.
Georgia State University has scanned the brains of both gamers and non-gamers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tools. Subjects were able to observe a cue followed by a display of moving dots, then asked to press a button in their right or left hand depending on which direction the dot was moving.
Gamers were both faster and more accurate in their responses.
“These results indicate that playing video games may enhance some of the sensation, perception and action mapping subprocesses to enhance decision-making skills,” the authors wrote. “These findings begin to clarify how playing video games alters the brain to improve task performance and their potential implications for increasing task-specific activity.”
It’s not just decision making. Video games build some soft skills that are useful in business, researchers have found over the years.
For example, a study published in the American Journal of Play in 2014 found that the fast pace of many video games requires people to keep track of many items at once and make split-second decisions, positively impacting perception, attention, memory and decision. . which many psychologists consider to be the most important building blocks of intelligence.
And four years earlier, the University of Rochester found that playing action-oriented games gives players better vision, better attention and better cognition. Those improvements help with activities such as multitasking, navigating the city, and reading fine print.
Different game modes build different types of skills. Puzzle games teach problem solving. Real-time action games improve fine motor skills, memory, reaction time, and the aforementioned hand-eye coordination. Strategy games encourage players to plan, manage resources and balance competitive goals.
Video games also offer introverts or those who struggle with real-world interactions the chance to be a vital part of a team — and sometimes lead that team. That’s an incredibly powerful sensation for someone who may be too young to do this at work (gain experience), be overlooked by co-workers, or suffer from a lack of self-confidence.
Perhaps the most important? Video games can build empathy, a crucial skill among leaders. In SalamFor example, players live the life of a refugee, dodging bombs, finding water and seeking energy points, all while traveling from a war zone to a peaceful life.
Adventure games with a strong story component, such as The last of us, you get emotionally invested in characters. That’s not uncommon in any entertainment medium. But in games you get to make decisions for those characters. If you make a bad choice, they pay the consequence and that decision can affect the rest of the game. The player learns from that.
Not sure which game to try if you want to improve your skills? Here are a few suggestions:
brain age – Who would have thought that a game designed to keep your brain sharp would sell over 4 million copies and launch a franchise? But the way the questions in this title are worded makes it more of an exercise in fun than homework.
Portal – Gamers remember Portal for the grin it brought to their faces and the witty insults of GLaDOS. But it is also an educational game hidden in an action sheepskin. It involves problem solving and spatial relationships and requires strategy, planning and creative insight.
Civilization – Sid Meier’s beloved series is as close to a living history book as it gets. Players learn the principals behind the names and dates in their books. It doesn’t teach real history, but the in-game encyclopedia is full of useful facts. And players learn strategy at the same time.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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