It's frequently argued that playing games like Dungeons & Dragons can help you develop social skills like, cooperation, teamwork, and interpersonal communication. Get in there, use the game as scaffolding to practice those skills in a low-risk environment, and be a better you!

And while these arguments make sense and are sometimes paired with anecdotal evidence, research in a controlled study are hard to come by for a variety of reasons. In this episode of the podcast, I'll talk with a researcher who has set out to create and empirically test a program for using D&D to help people lower social anxiety and loneliness while improving their self-image.

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Guest Expert Links:

• Dr. Billieux's university page
• His Researchgate.net page
• Information about the study we discussed

Audio Credits:

• “Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0\
• "Babylon" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/