Givling Survey: 91% Say Casual Games Help Them Cope With Stress

San Francisco, CA, October 8, 2015 (Newswire.com) - Givling, developer of gamified crowdfunding apps for social good, today unveiled findings from a consumer survey that suggests online games can help players reduce stress and perhaps even help people manage stress better.

The majority of survey participants reported being most drawn to so-called “casual” games such as puzzles, trivia, and mazes that are typically played on a mobile phone or computer. Of the 70% of those surveyed who said they regularly take part in such gaming, 91% claimed the games help them de-stress. In fact, 53% say they play games specifically to de-stress while nearly a third claim the de-stressing element of games can have a positive impact on their job, relationships, parenting or schoolwork.

Furthermore, players who report leading stressful lives are 10% more likely to deal with stress than those who don’t play games. 71% of those who play games say they generally live happy and productive lives as opposed to the slightly higher percentage (76%) of non-gamers who expressed the same.

“It might seem counter intuitive to those who think playing games might stress people out or hurt their lives by taking up too much of their time, but our research shows gaming can have quite the opposite effect,” said Givling Founder and CEO Lizbeth Pratt.

Is gaming a waste of time?

To be sure, 60% of those who don’t play games dismiss them as a waste of time. But 65% of those who play say if they weren’t playing games, they’d be doing something else that’s unproductive.

Is gaming about being anti-social?

While 75% of gamers said they were more likely to play alone than with others, the groups of gamers and non-gamers both shared similar results when it came to being sociable—about half of both groups reported helping people at least once per day and maintaining a positive outlook for humanity.

“For a long time, I think some assumed that gamers don’t contribute as much to society or care about people as much as non-gamers,” continued Pratt. “Clearly this isn’t the case. People who like to play games are just as likely to help out humanity. They’re just as likely to care about other people, and they’re just as hopeful for a better world.”

Does playing longer mute gaming’s mental health benefits?

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the benefits of games don’t seem to go down as gaming frequency goes up, though the survey does suggest that longer gaming sessions might erode at least some of gaming’s positive effects over time: those who tend to play 30 minutes at most per session are 17% more likely to have a positive outlook on life than those who play an hour.

For the most part, survey respondents report frequent play but short sessions: 69% play at least several days a week while 48% play at least once per day; 46% play no more than 30 minutes per session while 28% play up to an hour.

“While it may not be advisable for people to whittle the day away playing games, our survey suggests most people bring a healthy approach to gaming, fitting it in for a few minutes here and there to reap some significant mental health benefits,” added Pratt. 

More than 500 US-based Internet users 18 years old and over participated in the Givling survey, which was conducted online in September of 2015.

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About Givling

Launched in March of 2015, Givling sprung from a very simple idea: merge crowdfunding and gaming to help solve a major financial problem while rewarding funders for their generosity. Givling is an online trivia game in which players (or “funders”) pay 50 cents to compete with one another for the chance to win cash awards and million dollar potential. The more people pay to play, the more money Givling collects to help pay off the student loans of those in Givling’s queue. Givling gives away 90% of all proceeds to pay champions and student loans in queue. Givling can be played in all US states except Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Iowa, Maryland and Tennessee.