ScatteredGenius.com

Amongst the group’s findings was that Bejeweled had a 54 percent stress-reducing affect on test subjects, while Peggle was found to raise mood levels by 573 percent, something that study director Dr. Carmen Russoniello called “not surprising… given the game’s over-the-top celebration of players’ success each time they complete a level.”

Now that there’s a tangible, yet biased study on this, I’m sure other heavily corporate casual game developers are going to quickly meet up about this and try to “Push the Envelope.” I can imagine the scenario now, where a boardroom full of execs are yelling at each other trying to figure out how to make a game that has 600% mood level increase.

Gamasutra - PopCap-Underwritten Study Shows Casual Games Positively Affecting Mood