There was a time when most of the parents used to be after their children all the time to put a restriction on the time of their video games. This was done due to the thought that video games are actually just a waste of time for children who must instead go out and
engage in sports or study at home. However, this notion is no longer the same now.
This is because research now states that video games have the power to boost empathy amongst kids. Read ahead to know more about it now. If reports and findings are to be believed, then the average time spent by the youth aged between 8 and 18 on any video game platform is 70 minutes.
This report has been published by the United States based Kaiser Family foundation. Now, scientists feel that
video games have the power to boost empathy amongst children because it leads to greater connectivity in the brain network.
All of this is related to the personal behavior of the child in the real world. Do you know what empathy means? It actually means to be able to look at the world through the eyes of someone else. This means that you place yourself in someone else’s position and then understand the world and life situations as they would feel and
perceive it.
Research
There is a stimulation that is received by the neural networks when it plays video games. This is what links directly to the emotional aspect of the child’s personality. Teachers have always identified empathy as a very vital quality for a peaceful life because without it, the
child may suffer in later life and fail to develop strong relations. With this research now surfacing, there are also chances that video games may be propagated in schools and their curriculum.
However, it must be noted here itself that video games have always considered to be helpful when understanding early about the concept of time, space and distance.
There was also an experiment that was carried out to prove the point. Around 150 pupils of middle school were divided into two groups. The first group played Crystals of Kaydor and the aim of this was to teach empathy to the children. The second group played Bastion
without the aim of empathy.
It was noticed that in the first case, the children interacted with aliens that resided on a distant planet and experienced human-like emotions of anger, happiness, fear, etc. The researchers then studied how far the students were able to identify the emotions of the characters. Those who played Bastion, simply had to collect material to build a machine to save their village but there was no empathy at play as such.
The children who were part of the test also participated in brain scans to show and measure how accurately they were able to empathize with others. Increased neural connectivity led to increased empathy after playing the video games.