The game that can give you 10 extra years of life

When game designer Jane McGonigal found herself bedridden and suicidal following a severe concussion, she had a fascinating idea for how to get better. She dove into the scientific research and created the healing game, SuperBetter. In this moving talk, McGonigal explains how a game can boost resilience -- and promises to add 7.5 minutes to your life.

I'm a gamer, so I like to have goals.

I like special missions
and secret objectives.

So here's my special mission
for this talk:

I'm going to try to increase the life span
of every single person in this room

by seven and a half minutes.

Literally, you will live seven
and a half minutes longer

than you would have otherwise,

just because you watched this talk.

Some of you are looking
a little bit skeptical.

That's okay, because check it out --

I have math to prove that it is possible.

It won't make much sense now.

I'll explain it all later,

just pay attention
to the number at the bottom:

+7.68245837 minutes.

That will be my gift to you
if I'm successful in my mission.

Now, you have a secret mission too.

Your mission is to figure out
how you want to spend

your extra seven and a half minutes.

And I think you should do
something unusual with them,

because these are bonus minutes.

You weren't going to have them anyway.

Now, because I'm a game designer,
you might be thinking to yourself,

I know what she wants us to do
with those minutes,

she wants us to spend them playing games.

Now this is a totally
reasonable assumption,

given that I have made quite
a habit of encouraging people

to spend more time playing games.

For example, in my first TED Talk,

I did propose that we should spend
21 billion hours a week,

as a planet, playing video games.

Now, 21 billion hours, it's a lot of time.

It's so much time, in fact,
that the number one unsolicited comment

that I have heard from people
all over the world

since I gave that talk, is this:

Jane, games are great and all,
but on your deathbed,

are you really going to wish you spent
more time playing Angry Birds?

(Laughter)

This idea is so pervasive --

that games are a waste of time
that we will come to regret --

that I hear it literally everywhere I go.

For example, true story:

Just a few weeks ago,

this cab driver, upon finding out
that a friend and I were in town

for a game developers' conference,

turned around and said -- and I quote --

"I hate games. Waste of life.

Imagine getting to the end of your life
and regretting all that time."

Now, I want to take
this problem seriously.

I want games to be
a force for good in the world.

I don't want gamers to regret
the time they spent playing,

time that I encouraged them to spend.

So I have been thinking about this
question a lot lately.

When we're on our deathbeds,

will we regret the time
we spent playing games?

Now, this may surprise you,
but it turns out

there is actually some scientific research
on this question.

It's true.

Hospice workers,

the people who take care of us
at the end of our lives,

recently issued a report
on the most frequently expressed regrets

that people say when they are
literally on their deathbeds.

And that's what I want
to share with you today --

the top five regrets of the dying.

Number one:

I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

Number two:

I wish I had stayed
in touch with my friends.

Number three:

I wish I had let myself be happier.

Number four:

I wish I'd had the courage
to express my true self.

And number five:

I wish I'd lived a life true to my dreams,

instead of what others expected of me.

Now, as far as I know, no one ever
told one of the hospice workers,

"I wish I'd spent more
time playing video games,"

but when I hear these top five
regrets of the dying,

I can't help but hear
five deep human cravings

that games actually help us fulfill.

For example, I wish
I hadn't worked so hard.

For many people, this means,
I wish I'd spent more time

with my family, with my kids
when they were growing up.

Well, we know that playing games together
has tremendous family benefits.

A recent study from Brigham
Young University School of Family Life

reported that parents who spend more time
playing video games with their kids

have much stronger
real-life relationships with them.

"I wish I'd stayed in touch
with my friends."

Hundreds of millions of people

use social games like FarmVille
or Words With Friends

to stay in daily contact
with real-life friends and family.

A recent study from
the University of Michigan

showed that these games are incredibly
powerful relationship-management tools.

They help us stay connected
with people in our social network

that we would otherwise grow distant from,

if we weren't playing games together.

"I wish I'd let myself be happier."

Well, here I can't help but think
of the groundbreaking clinical trials

recently conducted
at East Carolina University

that showed that online games
can outperform

pharmaceuticals for treating
clinical anxiety and depression.

Just 30 minutes of online game play a day

was enough to create
dramatic boosts in mood

and long-term increases in happiness.

"I wish I'd had the courage
to express my true self."

Well, avatars are a way
to express our true selves,

our most heroic, idealized
version of who we might become.

You can see that in this alter ego
portrait by Robbie Cooper

of a gamer with his avatar.

And Stanford University has been
doing research for five years now

to document how playing a game
with an idealized avatar

changes how we think and act in real life,

making us more courageous, more ambitious,

more committed to our goals.

"I wish I'd led a life true to my dreams,

and not what others expected of me."

Are games doing this yet?

I'm not sure, so I've left
a Super Mario question mark.

We're going to come back to this one.

But in the meantime,
perhaps you're wondering,

who is this game designer
to be talking to us

about deathbed regrets?

And it's true, I've never
worked in a hospice,

I've never been on my deathbed.

But recently I did spend
three months in bed, wanting to die.

Really wanting to die.

Now let me tell you that story.

It started two years ago, when I hit
my head and got a concussion.

The concussion didn't heal properly,

and after 30 days, I was left
with symptoms like nonstop headaches,

nausea, vertigo, memory loss, mental fog.

My doctor told me that in order
to heal my brain,

I had to rest it.

So I had to avoid everything
that triggered my symptoms.

For me that meant no reading,
no writing, no video games,

no work or email, no running,
no alcohol, no caffeine.

In other words -- and I think
you see where this is going --

no reason to live.

(Laughter)

Of course it's meant to be funny,

but in all seriousness,
suicidal ideation is quite common

with traumatic brain injuries.

It happens to one in three,
and it happened to me.

My brain started telling me,
"Jane, you want to die."

It said, "You're never going
to get better."

It said, "The pain will never end."

And these voices became
so persistent and so persuasive

that I started to legitimately
fear for my life,

which is the time that I said
to myself after 34 days --

and I will never forget this moment --

I said, "I am either going to kill myself

or I'm going to turn this into a game."

Now, why a game?

I knew from researching the psychology
of games for more than a decade

that when we play a game --

and this is
in the scientific literature --

we tackle tough challenges
with more creativity,

more determination, more optimism,

and we're more likely
to reach out to others for help.

I wanted to bring these gamer traits
to my real-life challenge,

so I created a role-playing recovery game

called Jane the Concussion Slayer.

Now this became my new secret identity,

and the first thing I did as a slayer
was call my twin sister --

I have an identical
twin sister named Kelly --

and tell her, "I'm playing
a game to heal my brain,

and I want you to play with me."

This was an easier way to ask for help.

She became my first ally in the game,

my husband Kiyash joined next,

and together we identified
and battled the bad guys.

Now this was anything
that could trigger my symptoms

and therefore slow down
the healing process,

things like bright lights
and crowded spaces.

We also collected and activated power-ups.

This was anything I could do
on even my worst day

to feel just a little bit good,

just a little bit productive.

Things like cuddling
my dog for 10 minutes,

or getting out of bed and walking
around the block just once.

Now the game was that simple:

Adopt a secret identity,
recruit your allies,

battle the bad guys,
activate the power-ups.

But even with a game so simple,

within just a couple days
of starting to play,

that fog of depression
and anxiety went away.

It just vanished. It felt like a miracle.

Now it wasn't a miracle cure
for the headaches

or the cognitive symptoms.

That lasted for more than a year,

and it was the hardest year
of my life by far.

But even when I still had the symptoms,

even while I was still in pain,
I stopped suffering.

Now what happened next
with the game surprised me.

I put up some blog posts
and videos online,

explaining how to play.

But not everybody
has a concussion, obviously,

not everyone wants to be "the slayer,"

so I renamed the game SuperBetter.

And soon, I started hearing
from people all over the world

who were adopting
their own secret identity,

recruiting their own allies,
and they were getting "super better,"

facing challenges
like cancer and chronic pain,

depression and Crohn's disease.

Even people were playing it
for terminal diagnoses like ALS.

And I could tell from their messages
and their videos

that the game was helping them
in the same ways that it helped me.

They talked about feeling
stronger and braver.

They talked about feeling better
understood by their friends and family.

And they even talked
about feeling happier,

even though they were in pain,

even though they were tackling
the toughest challenge of their lives.

Now at the time, I'm thinking
to myself, what is going on here?

I mean, how could a game
so trivial intervene so powerfully

in such serious, and in some cases
life-and-death, circumstances?

I mean, if it hadn't worked for me,

there's no way I would have
believed it was possible.

Well, it turns out
there's some science here, too.

Some people get stronger and happier
after a traumatic event.

And that's what was happening to us.

The game was helping us experience

what scientists call
post-traumatic growth,

which is not something
we usually hear about.

We usually hear about
post-traumatic stress disorder.

But scientists now know
that a traumatic event

doesn't doom us to suffer indefinitely.

Instead, we can use it as a springboard

to unleash our best qualities
and lead happier lives.

Here are the top five things that people
with post-traumatic growth say:

"My priorities have changed."

"I'm not afraid to do
what makes me happy."

"I feel closer to my friends and family."

"I understand myself better.
I know who I really am now."

"I have a new sense of meaning
and purpose in my life."

"I'm better able to focus
on my goals and dreams."

Now, does this sound familiar?

It should, because the top five traits
of post-traumatic growth

are essentially the direct opposite
of the top five regrets of the dying.

Now this is interesting, right?

It seems that somehow, a traumatic event

can unlock our ability to lead
a life with fewer regrets.

But how does it work?

How do you get from trauma to growth?

Or better yet, is there a way
to get all the benefits

of post-traumatic growth
without the trauma,

without having to hit
your head in the first place?

That would be good, right?

I wanted to understand
the phenomenon better,

so I devoured the scientific literature,
and here's what I learned.

There are four kinds
of strength, or resilience,

that contribute to post-traumatic growth,

and there are scientifically
validated activities

that you can do every day to build up
these four kinds of resilience,

and you don't need a trauma to do it.

I could tell you what these four
types of strength are,

but I'd rather you
experience them firsthand.

I'd rather we all start building them up
together right now.

Here's what we're going to do.

We'll play a quick game together.

This is where you earn
the seven and a half minutes

of bonus life that I promised you earlier.

All you have to do
is successfully complete

the first four SuperBetter quests.

And I feel like you can do it.
I have confidence in you.

So, everybody ready?

This is your first quest. Here we go.

Pick one: Stand up and take three steps,

or make your hands into fists,
raise them over your head

as high as you can for five seconds, go!

All right, I like the people doing both.

You are overachievers. Very good.

(Laughter)

Well done, everyone.

That is worth +1 physical resilience,

which means that your body
can withstand more stress

and heal itself faster.

We know from the research

that the number one thing you can do
to boost your physical resilience

is to not sit still.

That's all it takes.

Every single second
that you are not sitting still,

you are actively improving
the health of your heart,

and your lungs and brains.

Everybody ready for your next quest?

I want you to snap
your fingers exactly 50 times,

or count backwards from 100
by seven, like this: 100, 93...

Go!

(Snapping)

Don't give up.

(Snapping)

Don't let the people
counting down from 100

interfere with your counting to 50.

(Snapping)

(Laughter)

Nice. Wow. That's the first
time I've ever seen that.

Bonus physical resilience.
Well done, everyone.

Now that's worth +1 mental resilience,

which means you have more
mental focus, more discipline,

determination and willpower.

We know from the scientific research

that willpower
actually works like a muscle.

It gets stronger the more you exercise it.

So tackling a tiny challenge
without giving up,

even one as absurd as snapping
your fingers exactly 50 times

or counting backwards from 100 by seven

is actually a scientifically validated way
to boost your willpower.

So good job. Quest number three.

Pick one: Because of the room,
fate's really determined this for you,

but here are the two options.

If you're inside,
find a window and look out of it.

If you're outside,
find a window and look in.

Or do a quick YouTube
or Google image search

for "baby [your favorite animal.]"

Do it on your phones,
or just shout out some baby animals,

and I'll put them on the screen.

So, what do we want to see?

Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake.
Okay, let's see what we got.

Baby dolphin and baby llamas.
Everybody look.

Got that?

Okay, one more. Baby elephant.

(Audience) Oh!

We're clapping for that?

That's amazing.

(Laughter)

All right, what we're just feeling there
is plus-one emotional resilience,

which means you have the ability
to provoke powerful,

positive emotions like curiosity or love,

which we feel looking at baby animals,

when you need them most.

Here's a secret from the scientific
literature for you.

If you can manage to experience
three positive emotions

for every one negative emotion

over the course of an hour, a day, a week,

you dramatically improve your health

and your ability to successfully tackle
any problem you're facing.

And this is called the three-to-one
positive emotion ratio.

It's my favorite
SuperBetter trick, so keep it up.

All right, pick one, last quest:

Shake someone's hand for six seconds,

or send someone a quick thank you

by text, email, Facebook or Twitter. Go!

(Chatting)

Looking good, looking good.

Nice, nice.

Keep it up.

I love it!

All right, everybody,
that is +1 social resilience,

which means you actually get
more strength from your friends,

your neighbors, your family,
your community.

Now, a great way to boost
social resilience is gratitude.

Touch is even better.

Here's one more secret for you:

Shaking someone's hand for six seconds

dramatically raises the level
of oxytocin in your bloodstream,

now that's the trust hormone.

That means that all of you
who just shook hands

are biochemically primed to like
and want to help each other.

This will linger during the break,

so take advantage
of the networking opportunities.

(Laughter)

Well, you have successfully
completed your four quests,

let's see if I've successfully
completed my mission

to give you seven and a half
minutes of bonus life.

Now I get to share one more
little bit of science with you.

It turns out that people who regularly
boost these four types of resilience --

physical, mental, emotional and social --

live 10 years longer than everyone else.

So this is true.

If you are regularly achieving
the three-to-one positive emotion ratio,

if you are never sitting still
for more than an hour at a time,

if you are reaching out to one person
you care about every single day,

if you are tackling tiny goals
to boost your willpower,

you will live 10 years longer
than everyone else,

and here's where that math
I showed you earlier comes in.

So, the average life expectancy
in the U.S. and the U.K. is 78.1 years,

but we know from more than 1,000
peer-reviewed scientific studies

that you can add 10 years of life
by boosting your four types of resilience.

So every single year that you are boosting
your four types of resilience,

you're actually earning
.128 more years of life

or 46 more days of life,
or 67,298 more minutes of life,

which means every single day,
you are earning 184 minutes of life,

or every single hour that you are boosting
your four types of resilience,

like we just did together,
you are earning 7.68245837

more minutes of life.

Congratulations, those seven
and a half minutes are all yours.

You totally earned them.

Yeah!

(Applause)

Awesome.

Wait, wait, wait.

You still have your special mission,
your secret mission.

How are you going to spend
these minutes of bonus life?

Well, here's my suggestion.

These seven and a half bonus minutes
are kind of like genie's wishes.

You can use your first wish
to wish for a million more wishes.

Pretty clever, right?

So, if you spend these
seven and a half minutes today

doing something that makes you happy,

or that gets you physically active,

or puts you in touch
with someone you care about,

or even just tackling a tiny challenge,

you're going to boost your resilience,
so you're going to earn more minutes.

And the good news is,
you can keep going like that.

Every hour of the day,
every day of your life,

all the way to your deathbed,

which will now be 10 years later
than it would have otherwise.

And when you get there, more than likely,

you will not have
any of those top five regrets,

because you will have built up
the strength and resilience

to lead a life truer to your dreams.

And with 10 extra years,
you might even have enough time

to play a few more games.

Thank you.

(Applause)