Catching more than pocket monsters: Pokémon Go's social and psychological effects on players

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

The augmented reality mobile game Pokémon Go has reached unprecedented popularity since its release in 2016. The game has received intense media attention, but scientific inquiry into its popularity and the effects of play are in the early stages. Previous work has used secondary data or simple correlational analysis to draw early conclusions. A seven-day diary study was conducted to investigate potential health, psychological, and social outcomes of daily gameplay. Daily time spent playing Pokémon Go was related to higher scores of life satisfaction, vitality, and greater social interactions and conversation with both friends and strangers, but not with increased daily exercise. Increased total gameplay across the week was associated with increased interaction and conversations along with more exercise. Future directions for this unique type of game along with the need for theoretical development for unique style of games are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Social Psychology
Volume160
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)131-136
Number of pages6
ISSN0022-4545
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

    Research areas

  • Augmented reality, life satisfaction, Pokémon Go, social interactions, videogames

ID: 241119228