In the recent years, Escape Room games quickly became a widespread team building activity; more and more escape room games have popped up with various themes. With the still increasing popularity of escape room games, people are beginning to ask: why are they so popular? Why is it that we like to look for situations to escape from? Why do we love being trapped in a room?
Human beings are naturally inquisitive creatures, we love to explore and to solve puzzles to complete tasks. This can be applied to escape room games. Here are some of the psychological reasons behind why we love escape rooms:
The act of running around and trying to decode clues provides a similar effect to getting up and going for a walk: it lifts your mood and makes you happier. The reason behind this is because doing any sort of physical activity will give you a release of dopamine, a compound present in the body that is correlated with positive moods.
Typically, each escape room game runs on a time limit, and the goal is to escape before time is up. This means that in order to escape a room, fast thinking is required. When you engage in fast thinking, your body also releases dopamine. This feeling is contagious, while solving a puzzle with other people, it lets off this collaborative energy which in turn elevates other people’s moods as well.
It’s been reported that once placed in an escape room, people often behave differently and are more willing to speak up with their own opinions and expertise. What contributes to this change in behaviour is that they are trapped in a room with a countdown clock. Some people take on the roles of a leader and/or a follower (which might be different than the role they typically take outside the game) and work to collaborate on escaping. People quickly get more comfortable in this high intensity atmosphere, and those who are normally soft spoken, become really opinionated. This happens because when people know there is a correct answer, and they are assigned specific tasks, if they are good at those tasks, they will feel more confident and be more willing to speak up.
You have to use almost all of your senses to figure out how to get out of the escape room (perhaps not taste…for now), but there can be clues in certain smells, the way certain things feel, in the noises that we hear, and of course the things that we see. Using a combination of the four of the five senses brings out a stimulation in the body similar akin to a high which only intensifies if the group succeeds in escaping the room.
Escape rooms are great for the challenge and for deepening social relationships with others, because it forces you to put down your phone and to engage with one another to reach a common goal: which is to escape.
If you want to face the challenge of escaping with your closest friends or coworkers, book a room at Escape Games today!