A new study shows that video games improve the creativity in students and also play a role in corporate decision-making. The study was led by an Indian-origin media researcher at Penn State.

S. Shyam Sundar, however, revealed that his study has also found players who were not highly energized, and had a negative mood, to register the highest creativity.

"You need defocused attention for being creative. When you have low arousal and are negative, you tend to focus on detail and become more analytical," said Sundar, a professor of Film, Video and Media Studies at Penn State.

He undertook the study with a graduate student named Elizabeth Hutton with a view to understanding the value of video games as a vehicle for sparking positive social traits, such as creativity.

The fact that schools, corporations, and even the government are increasingly employing video games as a tool in enhancing learning and decision-making acted as a compelling force for the researcher duo to begin their study.

"Video games are not just for entertainment alone. We are trying to figure out how they can aid in education as well," says Sundar.

During the study, 98 undergraduate and graduate students were asked to play a popular video game known as 'Dance Dance Revolution', at various levels of complexity.

The students took a standard creativity test after playing, while the researchers took readings of the players' skin conductance and asked them whether they were feeling either positive or negative after the game.