JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Loneliness has been linked to reduced mental and physical health, whilst the current ‘loneliness epidemic’ has been recognized as a public health crisis. Yet, important questions remain about the potential of video games that people play on their own to help reduce people’s perceived loneliness.

Objective:

In the current study we explore the extent to which, if at all, open-world games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and fun, accessible games such as Yoshi’s Crafted World that people play by themselves can help reduce loneliness. In addition, we examine how such video gameplay can foster stoicism and can help reduce perceived loneliness.

Methods:

As part of our cross-sectional survey study, we obtained responses from 2,252 participants, who completed a questionnaire answering questions about their loneliness, stoic approach to life, and whether they played an open-world game such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and/or a fun, accessible game such as Yoshi’s Crafted World. We conducted analysis of variance (ANOVA) as well as moderated mediation analysis (bootstrapped samples=5000; 95% CI) to examine the effects of video gameplay on stoicism and loneliness.

Results:

Results showed that participants who played an open-world game like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild indicated higher levels of stoicism (M = 4.87; 95% CI [4.663, 5.079]) than participants who did not (M = 3.23; 95% CI [3.089, 3.370] F(1, 2252) = 164.954, p < .001). Moreover, the results demonstrated that participants who played a Yoshi game noted significantly higher levels of stoicism (M = 4.49; 95% CI [4.268, 4.722]) than study participants who did not (M = 3.606; 95% CI [3.499, 3.712]; F(1, 2252) = 48.330, p < .001). In addition to this, we observed a significant interaction effect of open-world × fun, accessible gameplay (F(1, 2252) = 7.890, p = .005) on stoicism. Furthermore, the results showed that participants who played an open-world game like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild indicated lower levels of loneliness (M = 3.02; 95% CI [2.807, 3.223]) than participants who did not (M = 4.28; 95% CI [4.143, 4.424] F(1, 2252) = 98.321, p < .001). In addition, the results showed that participants who played a Yoshi game noted significantly lower levels of loneliness (M = 3.09; 95% CI [2.863, 3.317]) than study participants who did not (M = 4.209; 95% CI [4.102, 4.315]; F(1, 2252) = 76.316, p < .001). The results also showed a significant interaction effect of open-world × fun, accessible gameplay (F(1, 2252) = 4.777, p = .029), while gender had no effect on loneliness (F(1, 2252) = .339, p = .561).

Conclusions:

The current study highlights the potential for video gameplay to help reduce people’s loneliness in life.