The research question

For many important social issues …

… it seems due to a certain ‘diffusion of responsibility’ that people aren’t motivated to attentively evaluate all the existing arguments concerning these types of matters. Instead, we feel safe within our own (often digital) bubble, and the formation of our attitudes seems more likely to be influenced by simple heuristic cues. In order to increase the needed sense of responsibility for social issues, both art and games can be powerful tools (Staal, 2018; Lukosch et al., 2018). Within art, the ability to ‘work from conditions’, to inhabit a given situation, and to create temporary zones of participatory reflection are often cited as elements that convey values and increase the transformational power of artworks (Rogoff, 2018). Just like art and other media, also games are able to express certain values (Flanagan & Nissenbaum, 2015). Their interactive character however makes them unique compared to other media, because it allows people to experience choice (Jacobs, 2017). When art and games are combined, a new space of possibilities seems to arise, where new synergies may take place. Within such a space, Manuela and Annebeth would like to investigate the following: 
To what extent does the artistic form of Promise Me create a situation where players feel free and willing to discuss their values and confront their prejudices? To what extent does the act of making a promise concerning eating patterns increase the sense of responsibility to evaluate the issue of the continuation of intensive farming and the industrial exploitation of animals?

In order to measure the effects of Promise Me, a set of experimental (corona proof) game sessions will be organized. Data concerning game experience and sense of responsibility will be collected through short questionnaires before and after the performance. Each game session will be at the same time a (psychological) experiment and a moment for participatory reflection, where the players discuss and reflect on where they stand with respect to certain ethical issues concerning the animals and the way we humans treat them. This ambiguity playfully hints at the fact that the notion of ‘objectivity’ that should underlie the idea of a controlled experiment is never completely given or stable. It also contrasts the model of the controlled experiment as an ideal type with a more fluid and haphazard procedure of discovery. Results of the game sessions will not only further Annebeth’s research about persuasive game design, but also provide a feedback loop to Manuela’s art practice in order to evolve Promise Me into a more compelling moral learning art game.

References

- Staal, J. Propaganda Art from the 20th to the 21st Century (2018). (Doctoral thesis, Universiteit Leiden, NL). Retrieved from openaccess.leidenuniv.nl

- Lukosch, H. K., Bekebrede, G., Kurapati, S., & Lukosch, S. G. (2018). A scientific foundation of simulation games for the analysis and design of complex systems. Simulation & Gaming, 0(0), 1–36.

- Rogoff, I. (2018). Becoming Research. In: C. Jina and H. J. Ku, eds. The Curatorial in Parallax. Seoul, Republic of Korea: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, pp. 39-52.

- Flanagan, M. & Nissenbaum, H. (2015). Values at Play in Digital Games. MIT Press.

- Jacobs, R.S. (2017). Play to Win Over: Effects of Persuasive Games. Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.