Science Links Video Games and Creativity in Children

November 4 2011, 3:32pm

New research by Michigan State University scholars shows that both boys and girls who play video games tend to be more creative. The study, consisting of nearly 500 12 year-olds, demonstrated that the children who played video games, performed more creatively in tasks such as writing stories and drawing pictures.

According to Linda Jackson, professor of psychology and lead researcher on the project, this study is the first evidence based findings linking technology use to creativity. Jackson encourages game developers to use these findings as motivation for looking at video games with a different, and more creative perspective. Stating that, “video games can be designed to optimize the development of creativity while retaining their entertainment values such that a new generation of video games will blur the distinction between education and entertainment.” Source: Science Daily