Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

The second half of the twentieth century saw the emergence of entertainment-education as an academic field with the purpose of implementing a media message that entertains and educates an audience, contributing to social change. As digital media increases its impact in a hyper-mediated society, digital games have acquired relevance as a source of popular culture and as a tool for entertainment-education purposes. Over the last couple of decades, international organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank have employed digital games to raise awareness about development and humanitarian issues. Originally, these games were directed to users in the Global North. However, in recent years, the movement of digital games for development has pushed for a more inclusive platform that integrates Global South participants in networks based on outgroup empathy and includes the diverse realities faced by the players. While research recognizes the potential of digital games as a mechanism to develop empathic behavior among users, there is a research gap in the study of digital games as tools that can enhance empathy among outgroups and the political-economic implications of their production. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how digital games, based on their unique potential to facilitate the processes necessary for generating outgroup empathy, can operate as an important tool for international organizations carrying social change programming. The importance of the project lies in bringing together the fields of digital game studies and social change through the exploration of empathy building.