It turns out having fun and bonding with your coworkers by playing video games, can increase productivity inside the office, researchers from Brigham Young University (BYU) found out in their study.
...newly-formed work teams experienced a 20 percent increase in productivity on subsequent tasks after playing video games together for just 45 minutes. The study, published in AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, adds to a growing body of literature finding positive outcomes of team video gaming.
“To see that big of a jump — especially for the amount of time they played — was a little shocking,” said co-author and BYU associate professor Greg Anderson. “Companies are spending thousands and thousands of dollars on team-building activities, and I’m thinking, go buy an Xbox.”
The only downside to this research, as the researchers pointed out, is that this experiment was conducted to newly-formed teams on which members knew nothing about each other.
(Image Credit: Gabe Mayberry / BYU Photo)