People who play Pokémon Go aren’t just catching Pokémon: They’re catching happiness too, according to some University of Wisconsin researchers.
James Alex Bonus, a graduate student studying communication sciences and collaborator Alanna Peebles found individuals who play Pokémon Go are more active, have less social anxiety and are more positive than people who don’t play.
Bonus, an avid fan of Pokémon Go, and Peebles noticed negative attention surrounded the game when it first came out.
Pokémon Go, which debuted in July of 2016 and immediately became a viral trend, was affiliated with many news stories of people trespassing, running into poles and jaywalking while playing the game.
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“[Peebles and I] were kind of upset by [the negative news attention],” Bonus said. “The large majority seemed like people were having fun, there’s people making new friends. You see clumps of people clustered outside, walking around — all the things you want to see people be doing.”
Bonus said he and Pebbles wanted to see people’s reactions and short-term response to the game and how it attributed to an individual’s overall well-being.
UW communication arts professor Marie-Louise Mares and graduate student Irene Sarmiento assisted Pebbles and Bonus in surveying 400 students about Pokémon Go. They measured people’s emotional appeals and level of physical activity.
“We were looking at these multiple outcomes that … different people might be experiencing the game, things that might be appealing … and how those things attributed to overall life satisfaction,” Bonus said.
They found what they expected: People were thinking about “happy times in their childhood” and connecting with other people over the game.
These findings contributed to broader characteristics of a satisfying life, Bonus said. The study found individuals who played Pokémon Go felt more resilient in the face of negative aspects of their life.
The study also found people with social anxiety who were playing Pokémon Go and games similar to it can be use them as tools to combat social anxiety. People who were socially anxious were just as likely to be playing the game as those who don’t suffer from social anxiety.
Those who had social anxiety had “unique responses” to Pokémon Go, Bonus said. They didn’t experience as many positive emotions, but they did reduce their tendency to reflect negatively on their past.
Bonus said he is continuing this research and looking into nostalgia, which he said is understudied in the context of media.
The implications of these findings can be used to see what the beneficial uses for video games, Bonus said.
