nrik v He d a apa l sk Ma ATTITUDE GAME A study in the increase of bullying awareness in 9-12 years old children Master Degree Project in Informatics One year Level 22.5 ECTS Spring term 2015 Carlos González Díaz Supervisor: Anna-Sofia Alklind Taylor Examiner: Mikael Johannesson Abstract This thesis analyses how an increase in bullying awareness can be produced in children aged 9-12 years old playing an iPad serious game called Attitude Game. The project is conducted in collaboration with the company IUS Innovation, where two prototypes were developed by the author of the study, one with mechanics empowering not to bully and the other with mirror mechanics empowering to bully other children. The experiment was conducted with 29 children from a sports club in Göteborg. A pre- measurement of empathy and a pre-test-post-test measurement of attitude towards bullied children were used to gather data, together with a post-interview during the experiment. Students were assigned to 3 groups, based on a random selection and previous knowledge about the game. The result of the experiment displayed that there was no statistical difference between the change in attitude towards bullied children regarding the empathy level and the prototype tested. The post-interviews displayed that all the participants understood the serious purpose of the game. Keywords: iPhone, iPad, empathy, empathy manipulation, minigames, bullying, attitude, attitude towards bullied children, serious games, Interpersonal Reactivity Index, IRI, affective game design patterns, videogame, Dumb Ways to Die, Wario Ware, 9 year, 12 year, children Acknowledgement I would like to express my honest and humbled gratitude to my supervisor Anna-Sofia Alklind Taylor for her support, advice and assistance for this project (and for those many hours answering my army of questions). Thank you Anna-Sofia, Henrik Engström, Mikael Johannesson and Per Backlund for a life changing and self-growing year. Thank you to Adrien Donin De Rosière, Athanasios Karavatos, Aurélien Faurel, Clayton Freitas, Emil Bergqvist, Iman Farhanieh, Martin Hagvall, Petter Henriksson, Peter Ajuzie, Rikard Dahlberg and Robert Homewood for a great year of learning and companionship. Thank you Carlos González Castillo and María Dolores Díaz Lucas for bringing me to this world and giving me so much love. Os quiero mamá y papá. Thank you Fredrik Andreasson, Erik Ambring and the rest of the amazing people at IUS Innovation. Without you this project would have never been a reality. A final thank you to the reader that is going through these lines and whose name is not mentioned here. Thank you. Table of Contents 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 2 Background ........................................................................................................ 2 2.1 Attitude Project ....................................................................................................... 2 2.2 Serious Games ....................................................................................................... 2 2.2.1 Persuasive Games .......................................................................................................... 3 2.3 Bullying ................................................................................................................... 4 2.3.1 Serious Games about Bullying Previously Developed .................................................... 5 2.4 Affective Game Design Patterns ............................................................................. 7 2.4.1 Avatar Emotional Expression .......................................................................................... 8 2.4.2 Emotional Decision Making ............................................................................................. 8 2.5 Psychometrics ........................................................................................................ 8 2.5.1 Empathy .......................................................................................................................... 9 2.5.2 Attitude Towards a Group ............................................................................................. 10 2.5.3 Empathy and Increasing Attitude Towards a Group ..................................................... 10 2.6 Related Work ........................................................................................................ 10 2.6.1 Using Empathy to Improve Attitudes Toward a Group As a Whole .............................. 10 2.6.2 The Effect of a Persuasive Game on Attitude Towards the Homeless ......................... 11 3 Problem ............................................................................................................ 12 3.1 Aim ....................................................................................................................... 13 3.2 Methodology ......................................................................................................... 13 3.2.1 Prototype and Hardware ............................................................................................... 13 3.2.2 Participants .................................................................................................................... 14 3.2.3 Procedure ...................................................................................................................... 14 3.2.4 Ethical Considerations .................................................................................................. 17 3.2.5 Limitations ..................................................................................................................... 17 3.2.6 Expected Results .......................................................................................................... 17 4 Pilot Study ........................................................................................................ 18 4.1 Prototype .............................................................................................................. 18 4.2 Equipment ............................................................................................................ 19 4.3 Participants ........................................................................................................... 20 4.4 Pilot Test Session ................................................................................................. 20 4.5 Result ................................................................................................................... 21 4.5.1 Compilation of Data ....................................................................................................... 21 4.5.2 Compilation of Post-Interviews ...................................................................................... 22 4.5.3 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 23 5 Experiment ....................................................................................................... 24 5.1 Prototypes ............................................................................................................ 24 5.2 Equipment ............................................................................................................ 26 5.3 Participants ........................................................................................................... 27 5.4 Experiment Test session ....................................................................................... 28 6 Results and Analysis ....................................................................................... 29 6.1 Compilation of Data .............................................................................................. 29 6.1.1 Comparison Between the Groups ................................................................................. 31 6.2 Compilation of Post-Interviews .............................................................................. 32 6.2.1 Understanding of the Serious Purpose ......................................................................... 32 6.2.2 Enjoyment ..................................................................................................................... 32 6.2.3 Feedback of Improvement ............................................................................................ 32 6.3 Interpretation of Results ........................................................................................ 33 6.3.1 Hypothesis ..................................................................................................................... 33 7 Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 35 7.1 Summary of Results .............................................................................................. 35 7.2 Discussion ............................................................................................................ 35 7.3 Future Work .......................................................................................................... 37 References .............................................................................................................. 38 1 Introduction Reproduction is one of the vital parts in the life of every living being. As citizens of modern society, we trust the system to take care of our descendants