Game design guidelines to foster empathic behaviours in school-age children

Empathy supports social development and fosters deep social connections among people. It refers to affective expressions that enable people to understand others and share experiences with them. Childhood is a crucial stage for developing empathy, in which play activities are significant opportunitie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Design journal Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 577 - 595
Main Authors Mandelli, Roberta Rech, Tonetto, Leandro Miletto, Lorenz, Bruno Augusto, Meyer, Guilherme Englert Corrêa, Marin, Angela
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Routledge 04.07.2022
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Behavior
children
Children & youth
Content analysis
Design
Design for wellbeing
Empathy
game design
Games
Guidelines
Social impact
Social skills
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Summary:Empathy supports social development and fosters deep social connections among people. It refers to affective expressions that enable people to understand others and share experiences with them. Childhood is a crucial stage for developing empathy, in which play activities are significant opportunities to exercise empathic behaviour. This research aimed to understand how the design of games can stimulate empathic experiences in school-age children. We used action research to develop guidelines for the design of games to foster empathic behaviour. A group of specialists (designers and psychologists) elaborated design guidelines. They were applied in the development of a game called 'Me too!'. The game was tested with 28 children from the third year of elementary school. Content Analysis allowed the classification of empathic behaviours into three theoretical categories (affective response, cognitive process and empathic attitudes), indicating the design guidelines' relevance.
ISSN:1460-6925
1756-3062
DOI:10.1080/14606925.2022.2083364