A Moderated Mediation Analysis of Meaningfulness and Positive Intergroup Outcomes Through Prosocial Gameplay

Abstract

This study examines how the meaningfulness of a story influences empathy and attitudes towards racial or ethnic outgroups through a prosocial video game that features meaningful dialogic encounters with a fictional NPC outgroup character. Through a moderated mediation analysis, the role of outgroup identification in facilitating empathic feelings is also examined. An online pre-post user study was carried out with 206 participants aged from 20 to 61. Results showed meaningfulness was positively associated with attitudes towards racial or ethnic outgroups after playing the game. Empathic feelings mediated the link between meaningfulness and intergroup attitudes. Outgroup identification positively moderated the relationship between meaningfulness and empathy. Theoretical implications and limitations are discussed.