Your kids don't need to be protected from fear
Your kids don't need to be protected from fear
Why scary play is good for kids
A lot of people ask me how I got into horror. For most people, their introduction to horror was a movie — Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Thing are common answers. I can’t remember my first horror movie, though I think it might have been Wishmaster or Leprechaun. However, my introduction to horror wasn’t with movies, but with video games.
My earliest horror genre memory was playing Resident Evil on PS1 when I was about 5 or 6 years old. I was probably too young to be playing it — and definitely too young according to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, or ESRB. The ESRB gave Resident Evil a rating of Mature 17+, meaning it’s meant for people aged 17 or older, due to its portrayal of violence, blood, gore, and language. Resident Evil was, and still is, terrifying and unforgiving in its gameplay. There’s no skipping difficult parts, and you could only save the game in select locations. A mixture of puzzles, zombies, and conspiracies, Resident Evil challenges the players wits and courage.
As a young kid, the game was incredibly scary. I would often find myself needing to run to a safe room in-game where I could gather my courage and plan my next move. When I couldn’t make it to a safe room or didn’t know where the closest one was, I would pause the game to catch my breath, let my heart rate slow down, and give me time to build up the courage to face a group of zombies.
Despite needing these breaks, the game was intriguing and challenging enough to keep me coming back. It prodded me to face my fears and taught me that I could overcome them. It showed me that even if something was scary, I could get past it. Over time, I became more confident and needed fewer escapes to safe rooms and in-game pauses.
Although your parents may have told you that video games are a waste of time, there is some fascinating research showing that video games can be good for kids. In fact, scientists have created a video game specifically to help treat anxiety in children.
Any guesses on the genre of the game?
That’s right, there’s a scientifically backed horror survival game that helps treat anxiety in children. The Games for Emotional and Mental Health (GEMH) Lab helped create a game called MindLight. The game follows the story of a young boy named Arty who finds himself in his grandmother's mansion. Unfortunately for Arty, his grandmother’s massive house has been taken over by evil, shadowy forces. Playing as Arty, players must bring light back into the house and save Arty’s grandmother. Throughout the house, the players encounter shadowy creatures that block main objectives. The only way to defeat the monsters is by shining a light on them. Luckily, Arty discovers a glowing hat in his bedroom that can be used to shine light on the monsters, the eponymous mindlight. Sounds easy enough, right?
But of course, there’s a catch: While playing MindLight, players wear an EEG headband that measures brainwaves associated with relaxation. If the player gets too anxious about facing the shadowy monster, the EEG picks this up and send a signal to the game that dims the mindlight. When the mindlight is too dim, it is no longer powerful enough to defeat the monsters. When the player gets too anxious, they get a visual cue on the screen that helps them calm down and overcome the feeling of anxiety.
Like a guided version of me pausing Resident Evil to calm down, this helps the player learn that they can overcome feelings of anxiety and even gives them tips on how to do so.
Once they reach a state of relaxation, the mindlight begins to shine brightly again and the player is able to defeat the shadowy monster. This also serves as psychological reinforcement, teaching the player that calming down in the face of anxiety and fear is a good way to overcome the thing that made them anxious or fearful in the first place. MindLight brilliantly utilizes aspects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and neuroscience to help treat anxiety. And this only works because the game is scary.
In order to learn how to overcome fear and anxiety, the children have to experience it. And the best way to experience it is to play with it.
MindLight now has numerous studies reporting on its efficacy in treating anxiety in children. One randomized clinical control trial found that MindLight was as effective as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in both 3-month and 6-month follow-ups. This is pretty remarkable considering CBT is the gold standard for treating anxiety in children. Another study found that more “approach” behaviors in-game and fewer “avoidant” behaviors in-game were key to MindLight’s power as an anxiolytic. Children who spent more time exploring and facing monsters had even lower anxiety symptoms at follow-ups than children who avoided their fears by hiding in the game.
Children also report that MindLight is fun, which is more important than it sounds. Although the principles of CBT are scientifically sound, children (and adults, for that matter) don’t always find CBT exercises to be fun. This leads to reduced engagement with the practices, decreased motivation to learn, and ultimately a less effective session. By entrenching these principles in a game rather than homework, children are much more likely to learn and retain the skills they need to help them deal with anxiety and fear.
Reading a scary book, watching a scary TV show, or playing a scary game presents children with the opportunity to safely face those things that frighten them, the things that challenge their self-efficacy. Scary fictions offer children a productive way to engage with fear and safely experience feelings of uncertainty and anxiety. Most of the time it’s not the children who are too afraid of scary play — it’s the adults.