Tetris May Help Sooth Your Worried Mind, Study Says (theweek.in)

A new study published in the journal Emotion has found that playing the classic game of Tetris can help sooth the mind when you are awaiting uncertain news. The Week reports: The venerable video game was used in a recent experiment to create a state of flow -- the term psychologists use to describe a state of mind so engaged it makes the rest of the world fall away, and time pass more quickly. Researchers from University of California (UC) Riverside in the U.S. have found that state of perfect disengagement may improve the otherwise-emotionally unpleasant experience of waiting for uncertain news. In place of Tetris, in which blocks are flipped every which way and stacked into rows, one can substitute flow activities such as rock climbing, carpentry, playing chess, or swimming, researchers said.

For the research published in the journal Emotion, 290 undergraduate students were told the study would be about physical attractiveness. They filled out a questionnaire, after which a photo was taken of them. They were then told that students in another location would rate their physical attractiveness. While they were ostensibly being rated, the students were then asked to play Tetris for 10 minutes. [...] The participants who achieved flow -- those in the adaptive group -- experienced less negative emotion, and greater positive emotion than those who were bored, or for whom the level of play was too difficult.

Comments

Well duh

[DNS-and-BIND]

So playing games while you're worried takes your mind off things? Well gosh. Whoda thunk it? It's almost as if for some people, that's the whole point of video games, avoiding a shitty life by achieving flow in another world where their lives don't suck. I'm glad valuable grant money was spent on such an unexpected outcome that will certainly pave the way for exciting developments. Hey, look at it this way: these results are likely replicable, unlike most of the rest of the "science" produced by the humanities.

Re:Well duh

[Registered Coward v2]

So playing games while you're worried takes your mind off things? Well gosh. Whoda thunk it? It's almost as if for some people, that's the whole point of video games, avoiding a shitty life by achieving flow in another world where their lives don't suck. I'm glad valuable grant money was spent on such an unexpected outcome that will certainly pave the way for exciting developments. Hey, look at it this way: these results are likely replicable, unlike most of the rest of the "science" produced by the humanities.

Hey, they also discovered other activities that takes your mind off of something is soothing: In place of Tetris, in which blocks are flipped every which way and stacked into rows, one can substitute flow activities such as rock climbing, carpentry, playing chess, or swimming, researchers said.

TL;DR of TFA: Quit mopping around and go outside and do something..

Puts my mind on attacks against free software

[tepples]

Especially because Tetris lost its ability to take my mind off something since the 2008 "FOSS destroys the market" interview and a 2012 copyright lawsuit made Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov appear to me as an open opponent of the free software movement.

New stress, not less stress

[biggaijin]

While playing Tetris or any of the other endless video games of similar ilk, whether Tetris, or crushing candies or falling jewels, I find that they distract me from current concerns, as the psychologists noted. But they induce a stress of their own that steadily increases as the game continues, relentlessly and endlessly.