Evaluation of Serious Games Outcomes

Project Description

Social impact games (aka “serious games”) being developed by faculty affiliated with the 4C focus on creating positive social and behavioral change in target populations. The goal of Vanity is to reduce skin cancer by reducing indoor tanning bed use; Cops and Rubbers helps voters and policy makers understand the impact of allowing law enforcement officers to use condoms as evidence of prostitution.

This set of initiatives, spearheaded by Nick Carcioppolo and Soyoon Kim from Communication Studies, involves evaluating the impact of serious games on health behaviors, social behaviors, and decisions about social policy. Further, this project will ultimately help increase understanding of the types of formal features that lead to greater effectiveness for social impact games by applying (and expanding upon) theoretical frameworks used to evaluate entertainment education interventions. In other words, we not only want to demonstrate that these interventions work but we want to know how and why they work.