Doing Well: The Wellbeing Science Insights Podcast · Life Management Science Labs

Hannah Gunderman, Ph.D.: The Positive Effects of Video Games No One Talks About | Doing Well #89

·58 min·3 clips

Hannah says grief can make a video game feel like “a digital hug” before it helps with basic daily functioning.

Doing Well opens with its usual warm, measured frame and moves quickly into video games. Lu Mo sets up the episode by naming the split public story around games, alarm on one side and useful benefits on the other. Hannah Gunderman joins as the guest expert. The conversation stays clear and easy to follow. It starts from the familiar idea that games are often treated as threats. From there, it widens into the ways games may support spatial awareness and decision-making. A large part of the episode is about community. Gunderman explains that community can grow inside a game, around a game, or after the play session ends. She points to spaces such as Reddit, YouTube, Discord, and in-game collaboration as different paths to connection. The discussion does not flatten all games into one category. It keeps coming back to how mechanics and social design shape what players actually experience. That keeps the episode grounded. The show is also direct about the downside. Games can expose players to harassment, bullying, and negative social interactions. Multiplayer spaces, especially, can make that kind of harm easy to run into. The episode treats that as part of the same picture, not as an aside. Lu Mo keeps the pace calm and curious, which gives the guest room to explain how different games shape social connectedness in different ways. The closing point is simple: games can connect people, but the quality of that connection depends on where and how the play happens. The result is a balanced look at why video games deserve a more careful conversation than the usual headlines allow.

As heard by us

A measured look at gaming's social upside, with the harms kept in view.

Video games are treated here as a social and wellbeing question, not just a hobby. Hannah Gunderman and Lu Mo move past the usual alarm bells and ask what games can actually do: sharpen spatial awareness, support decision-making, and give people a place to meet.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A steadier take on how video games can build community and still expose people to harm.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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