A scoping review about the portrayal of mental illness in commercial video games

Abstract

Current research is sparse on the relatively new but highly relevant topic of mental disorders in video games. This scoping review aimed to map the existing research on portrayal of mental illness in video games. PubMed, PsychInfo, PsycArticles, Medline, Scopus and the ACM Digital Library were searched, resulting in the final inclusion of seven records. Prevalences for the representation of mental illness ranged from 12 to 24%. Findings indicate that video games’ portrayal of mental illness is predominantly stigmatizing and negatively connoted. Mental illness frequently serves as a reason for violent behavior and is portrayed in line with paranormal experiences. Yet, some games portray mental illness in a more neutral way, using game mechanics to elicit empathy. While this review emphasizes the need for non-stigmatizing depiction, potentially through the inclusion of experts in the development process, future research should examine how much consumers are affected by the negative or positive portrayal of mental illnesses in video games.