Science Says…
generated with AI, Dall-E
Some games are definitely heavier than others. I’m thinking of Scythe, Twilight Imperium, Dune; anything that requires an afternoon of commitment. Anyone who has played those games could attest to the focus that is required. That mental exertion is likely linked to improvement in your mental health! After all, it makes sense that working out your memory and logical faculties would improve them, just like going to the gym would make you strong. A popular ritual for chess champions is to play against ten opponents at a time… without looking at any of the boards! Surely, such practice would protect us from mental atrophy.
Science bears this out. Researchers Qiao Lin, Yunpeng Cao, and Jie Gao conducted an investigation in Shenyang, China, that showed how playing Go “relieved the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease patients compared with those from a control group.”[1] In Thailand, a research group found that “those [older adults] who joined the ska group reported statistically significant better scores of cognitive function in memory, attention, [and] executive function… compared to those who were in the control group.”[2] Many other studies are summarized in the meta-analysis which you can find here.[3] The analysis examines about 40 experiments that were done to investigate if board games are good at teaching (“educational knowledge”), making you smarter (“cognitive functions”), and healing the sick (“other conditions” like Alzheimer’s disease). In some studies, the participants would play the games just a couple of times, in others they’d play for 15-20 weeks. None, as far as I could tell, examined the consequences of playing for years. Interestingly, the cognitive function studies only used traditional games like chess, go, and ska, while the educational games were what we think of as “board games” (modern games with a rule book).
Perhaps the most interesting study is this one[4] , which showed how smokers’ attitude toward nicotine replacement therapy changed significantly after just two sessions playing a card game that explained various negative behaviors associated with smoking. Just two sessions! As a teacher, I’ve discovered the rather obvious fact that kids are always more engaged when they have something to do with their hands. So, all these studies that show some benefit of playing games and learning things are bearing out our intuitions. We have so many games that take place in historical periods (Scythe, Pax Pamir, Seven Wonders, Condottieri…), which are amazing at bringing history to life.
Science can be done with Wingspan, Evolution, and others. In fact, I wouldn’t think it a bad idea to have a board game hour for kids in school! And that’s a big part of our mission here at Let’s Play a Game.
Hasta luego,
-Leonardo
