Head researcher: Micaela Fonseca
Team:
- Thomas Bjørnsten (VIA University College)
- Pia Tikka (Tallinn University)
- Phil Lopes (Lusófona University)
The power of games is that it allows their users to reflect and make decisions within a simulated environment. It allows them to reflect and apply actions without consequence yet provide the necessary transfer of information and observe the different outcomes of said actions. Thus, it provides opportunities for players to learn and engage with topics from a series of different perspectives, allowing them to understand the general consequence of their actions upon the general environment.
Games such as “Papers Please”, “This War of Mine” or even “Disco Elysium”, provides players with a perspective of concepts such as:
- Playing the life of a border control officer and dealing with local political immigration policies.
- Playing the life of civilians in a warzone and how to survive and flee from a wartorn country.
- Engaging in political and philosophical roleplay, where the player must engage with other characters that present certain racial, sexual, and political prejudices.
Transfer of information can be a sensitive topic, where misinformation and biases can be enhanced through the perpetuation of sensationalist headlines, the manipulation of images or the constant bombardment of hate speech, which is often disseminated within media outlets. The effectiveness of sensationalism is undeniable; however, it is important to consider the consequences of conveying information in this manner and how this may influence the decision-making of the population itself. Thus, this project intends to explore this topic using games as an artifact for reflection and exploring the environment that can lead to sensationalism and its eventual consequences.
For this project, the topic will be restricted to climate change and how information is conveyed in this field. Game scenarios focused on knowledge dissemination, citizen engagement in climate change adaptation and climate resilience projects through storytelling.
The project’s first prototype will be web-based, allowing the researchers to disseminate and collect user data through a crowdsourcing methodology easily. A web-based solution will provide a larger pool and variety of users, strengthening the research outcomes obtained in the project.
In the context of current and future climate change challenges, we know that emotional triggers and sentiments are fundamental to people's engagement, motivation and decision-making biases. To further understand and investigate the complex interplay between climate change science, public knowledge and human emotions and biases, the project will make use of affective computing as an established method to study, recognize, interpret, and analyze emotional responses to specific scenarios and topics. State of the art in this field combines artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced sensor technologies to offer insights into human behaviour and engagement.
A multidisciplinary team is built around the common goal of jointly promoting applied games to study decision-making and, through this collaboration, offering new research possibilities.
The team defends and promotes the core European values of respect for diversity and human rights. The team was built to achieve greater diversity and inclusiveness at all levels, from geographies to institutional profiles, making this project a true example of transdisciplinary research. Moreover, the team defends and promotes the core European values of respect for diversity and human rights. The consortium was built with the goal of greater diversity and inclusiveness at all levels, from geographies to institutional profiles, thereby making this project a true example of transdisciplinary research.
