Increasing Donating Behavior Through a Game for Change

Abstract

Games for change have attracted the interest of humanitarian aid organizations and researchers alike. However, their effectiveness to promote behavior such as donating remains unclear. Furthermore, little is known about how key game properties interactivity and presentation mode impact the effectiveness of these games, or how player attitudes and experiences relate to the interplay between game properties and donating behavior. In this study, experimental conditions were systematically varied in their interactivity and presentation mode. Thereby, 234 participants played, watched, or read through one of six variations of the narrative of the game Darfur is Dying. Following this, they were asked to choose the percentage of an unexpected bonus to donate to a charity. While interactivity increased donating by an average of 12%, presentation mode had no significant impact on the percentage donated. Thus, between presentation mode and interactivity, interactivity was found to be the more impactful game property. Moreover, appreciation fully mediated the relationship between interactivity and donating, hinting at its relevance for the evaluation of the effectiveness of games for change.

Investigating the Effects of a Persuasive Digital Game on Immersion, Identification, and Willingness to Help

“…In a replication study using the same materials, however, Steinemann et al (2015) aggregated the willingness items into a single willingness score, with a borderline acceptable internal consistency of a ¼ .69. In the present study, we decided to perform a factor analysis and calculate internal consistency to see if the items could be aggregated or should be used separately.…”

“…The Willingness scale had borderline acceptable internal consistency (a ¼ .67). As in Study 1, and as in the previous study by Steinemann et al (2015), we decided to aggregate the willingness to help items into a single willingness score. However, analyses were also run with the separate willingness items, which yielded similar results and identical conclusions.…”

“…A new Willingness to Help scale was assembled. Based on the limited internal consistency of the Willingness to Help scale in previous research (Steinemann et al, 2015), which was also observed in Study 1 and 2, we changed the wording of the Willingness items. Four items asked participants to indicate agreement with the statements "I would donate e1 to help refugees, if someone would ask for it"; "I would volunteer to help refugees, if someone would ask for it"; "I want to help refugees if I can"; and "I would be prepared to truly do something to help the refugees in our country."…”

“…They also found that identification mediated the effectiveness of the game. One other study, however, found that a printed text about the situation in Darfur resulted in more identification than Darfur is Dying (Steinemann et al, 2015). It is therefore currently unclear whether persuasive games can be used to elicit increased levels of identification.…”

Designing for Emotional Complexity in Games

“…Compellingly, emotionally charged games have been found to extend their influence beyond the game context, promoting reflection on a variety of themes [6,12], which in turn has been linked to their potential to increase prosocial behavior [19].…”