The debate around children’s screen time has taken a new turn, with fresh academic research suggesting a classic toy could be a powerful antidote to the isolating effects of digital devices. A study by psychologists at Cardiff University and King’s College London provides evidence that playing with dolls offers significant benefits for children’s social development, benefits that tablet-based play does not replicate.
Dolls Versus Devices: The Study’s Findings
In a six-week randomised-control trial involving 73 children aged four to eight, researchers observed a clear divergence between those given a selection of dolls and those given tablets loaded with video games. Parents reported that tablet play was more likely to be solitary, while doll play more frequently involved friends or family.
The core discovery, however, lay in measurable cognitive improvements. The children playing with dolls showed a marked increase in “false-belief reasoning”. This is a key component of “Theory of Mind” (ToM)—the ability to understand that others can hold beliefs different from reality, a cornerstone of empathy and complex social interaction. Standardised tests assessed this by, for example, seeing if a child could track a character’s mistaken belief about the location of a moved object.
“We can be reasonably confident that the unique improvement in false belief reasoning is due to the type of assigned toy, suggesting causal evidence that doll play improves false belief reasoning,” the study, published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One, concluded. The researchers noted the benefits were universal, with no significant differences found between boys and girls.
The Brain Science Behind Pretend Play
According to the lead author, Dr Sarah Gerson, a reader in psychology at Cardiff University, the act of creating narratives for dolls allows children to rehearse social skills. “When playing with dolls, children have the opportunity to role-play characters, create narratives, and act out scenarios – doing so relies on and fosters the ability to imagine others’ thoughts, feelings, and intentions,” she said.
This aligns with broader research on imaginative play, consistently linked to benefits in cognitive development, language skills, and emotional regulation. More specific neuroimaging research by Dr Gerson’s team, also funded by Mattel, offers a biological basis. That work found that when children talk about the thoughts and emotions of their dolls—using what psychologists call “internal state language”—it activates the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) region of the brain, an area heavily involved in social processing and empathy.
This suggests doll play provides a safe environment for children to practice and internalise social skills, even when playing alone. Furthermore, ongoing multi-year research by Cardiff University indicates these benefits may extend to children with different neurodevelopmental profiles, including those with traits associated with autism, by supporting social processing through varied pathways.
Screen Time Concerns and the Role of Funding
The study emerges against a backdrop of mounting concern over the developmental impact of screen time on young children. Recent UK research found nine-month-old babies average 41 minutes of screen use daily, with other studies linking excessive exposure to reduced vocabulary, attention difficulties, and challenges in emotional and social functioning. Both the World Health Organization and the NHS recommend strict limits on screen time for the very young.
The Cardiff research was funded by the US toymaker Mattel, which also provided the dolls, including Barbie and Ken figures. A university spokesperson stated the study maintained scientific integrity through independent data collection and analysis. The funding allowed for the provision of a diverse range of dolls with “various races, body types, and career/life accessories” to encourage open-ended, non-scripted play.
Dr Gerson emphasised the potential wider importance of the findings, particularly for children who struggle socially. “We saw that improvements in false belief understanding were particularly great for children who had more parent-reported peer problems,” she said. By offering a novel way to nurture the foundations of healthy relationships, the humble doll, it seems, may hold a key to a vital aspect of childhood development.
