New York: Playing video games may not be as bad as we always thought and certain games that foster creative freedom can help in increasing creativity, researchers say.
In the experimental study published in the Creativity Research Journal, the researchers analysed 352 participants. They compared the effects of playing Minecraft, with or without instruction, to watching a TV show or playing a race car video game.
After 40 minutes of play or watching TV, the participants completed several creativity tasks. To measure creative production, they were asked to draw a creature from a world much different than Earth.
More human-like creatures scored low for creativity and those less human-like scored high. It was found that those given the freedom to play Minecraft — a game that allows players to explore unique worlds and create anything they can imagine — without instructions were the most creative while those instructed to be creative while playing Minecraft were the least creative.
