桌遊作為嚴肅遊戲的媒介對助人意向的影響

Abstract

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Serious games are designed for purposes beyond pure entertainment, increasingly applied to a broad spectrum of fields in recent years. Notably, much of the research has focused on the effectiveness of serious games in for-profit organizations to engage stakeholders for specific purposes; however, the effects of serious games in the nonprofit sector to engage supporters for prosocial purposes is understudied. Besides, only some studies have empirically tested the effects of serious games on prosocial behavior and attitude changes. Nevertheless, the results were inconsistent, and the knowledge of the underlying mechanism is scant. The present study aimed to understand serious games' effects on low-cost and high-cost prosocial intentions toward people with disabilities and the psychological process that mediates their relationship. Findings from a one-factor (serious board game vs. online text-reading) between-subjects experiment among 101 undergraduate participants revealed that game players expressed significantly greater low-cost prosocial intentions than text readers, and the effect was partially mediated by empathy. On the contrary, serious games had no effect on and even decreased high-cost prosocial intentions since the perceived costs of helping are relatively high, which directed people’s concern for others in need toward self-focused concern.