Crystals of Kaydor: Using Videogames to Develop Empathy In Adolescents
By: Sofia Noejovich
An adventure game designed to develop prosocial behavior and empathy in children that could potentially reduce the psychological and physiological effects of bullying.
During adolescence, many individuals will encounter their first experience with psychiatric illnesses, such as anxiety or depression. Many of these mental illnesses are brought on by the difficulties of social adjustment. This comes as no surprise as according to the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior at UW-Madison, 36% of adolescents are victims of bullying. These issues can cause serious long-term health consequences such as suicidal idealization, suicide attempts, and systemic inflammation.
Research has indicated that one of the most active defense mechanisms against bullying is empathy. According to the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, adolescents with stronger empathetic skills are less likely to internalize bullying and are less likely to be targets of bullying. Not only does this allow adolescents to develop positive and supportive relationships, but it can also reduce the long-term effects of physical and psychological stress.
The promising relationship between strong empathetic skills in children and a healthier adolescence has researchers engineering tools that develop emotional intelligence. Specifically, the Center for Healthy Minds (CHM) and Gear Learning (formerly Games+Learning+Society) at UW-Madison has taken on the challenge to create a platform to mature empathetic skills in adolescents. The team is devoted to developing tools for the mental well-being of people and has collaborated to develop Crystals of Kaydor (referred to as Crystals), an adventure game for the iPad designed to develop prosocial behavior and empathy in children.
Tammi Kral, a doctoral candidate in psychology at UW-Madison and lead researcher involved in the study states, “This work is particularly exciting given the massive scale at which pro-social videogames could affect change– some sources estimate between 1.5–2 billion people play videogames worldwide.” The team uses videogames as their platform not only because of the appeal of exposure but also because adolescents are drawn to the videogames and enjoy engaging in this medium, which can facilitate training. External research by Dr. Tobias Greitemeyer and Dr. Silvia Osswald has also demonstrated that playing videogames with a pro-social context improves social behavior.
“Prosocial videogames, such as empathy training, have the potential to improve the wellbeing of individuals, as well as to contribute to a kinder, more compassionate world.”
Crystals is a game that is designed to develop empathy in adolescents through perspective taking, a technique in which one approaches an emotional situation with a third-person viewpoint. In this study, the team examined the brain response of adolescents prior to videogame training, and determined that adolescents are most empathically accurate, meaning to correctly identify another’s emotions, when they use perspective taking rather than to directly relate to the situation through sharing in the other person’s emotional experience. Additional research has determined that this is because adolescents struggle with emotional regulation, or the ability to monitor and control one’s behavior. As a consequence, adolescents have a negative brain-behavior relationship when they use experience sharing to be empathic.
In the game, the user plays as a robot who is stranded on a distant planet. To survive, the player must form a relationship with the aliens of the planet by learning to interpret their six basic emotions (anger, fear, happiness, disgust, and sadness) through humanlike facial expressions at varying intensities. Once the player successfully identifies the six emotions, they can respond with the six similar facial expressions and will receive positive reinforcement when they respond using the correct emotional expression. The game continues to develop pro-social behavior in the player as they go on quests with the aliens to solve problems and learn to respond to different social situations. The stunningly colorful graphics of Crystals and the narrative portion of the game makes this a compelling and engaging tool to develop prosocial behavior in adolescents. Kral states, “Prosocial videogames, such as empathy training, have the potential to improve the wellbeing of individuals, as well as to contribute to a kinder, more compassionate world.”
To gauge the effects of the game, the team measured whether the game would improve empathic accuracy, stimulate empathy-related brain activation, and further develop the brain network associated with empathic processing in adolescents. The team tracked game-play data and recorded any changes in the brain associated with higher empathic accuracy, perspective taking and emotional regulation. Specifically, they looked to see if there was an increase in connectivity and structural changes of these regions and activation through resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scans.
While there were no measurable behavioral changes, the training portion of the game where the player learns to identify the underlying emotions of the aliens increased empathy-related brain activation. In addition, rs-fMRI scans reported an increased activation of the perspective-taking regions of the brain. Consequently, the team hypothesized that playing Crystals teaches adolescents to recruit the parts of their brain associated with perspective-taking in order to be empathically accurate. Furthermore, the group predicted that developing regions of the brain associated with emotional regulation would improve the empathic accuracy of adolescents. Surely enough, participants that had improved empathic accuracy had strengthened areas of the brain associated with emotional control. The team interprets the development of this connectivity as evidence of improving emotional regulation in adolescents.
The results of this study from measurable improvements in empathy-related brain activation and brain connectivity are likely to have a positive impact on adolescents. The team anticipates exploring more long-term studies to determine the role Crystals could have in developing prosocial behavior in participants. If the game has a positive impact, it would be valuable in its ability to develop important psychological skills in adolescents that will allow for the negation of the effects of bullying.
Looking forward, the team hopes to develop additional features for the game, such as more emotional expressions and more challenges involving empathic accuracy. This game has proven to be incredibly promising and valuable for strengthening adolescents’ empathy-related brain networks. Kral reiterates, “We are only beginning to explore this space, which provides a unique medium to blend the creative arts, learning sciences, and neuroscience to develop effective, engaging training.” Videogames are a promising platform to not only facilitate positive adolescence, but to develop a future society of compassionate individuals.
