Study: Playing Tetris could reduce your cravings

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Study: Playing Tetris could reduce your cravings
(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Who knew there could be something satisfying about a never-ending game? A new study published in Appetite found that playing Tetris for just three minutes can lessen cravings for food, cigarettes, and alcohol.

Researchers at Plymouth University's Cognition Institute asked study participants to rank their cravings in terms of strength. Half of the participants then played a game of a Tetris, while the other half watched a screen that attempted to load the game, but never actually did. After the exercise, both groups were asked to rate their cravings again. The researchers found that overall, the cravings of the Tetris-playing participants were 24 percent weaker after their brief digital distraction.

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Samantha Rollins

Samantha Rollins is TheWeek.com's news editor. She has previously worked for The New York Times and TIME and is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.