“I Don't See Color”: Characterizing Players’ Racial Attitudes and Experiences via an Anti-Bias Simulation Videogame

Abstract

Videogames and learning/training applications that address racial discrimination have risen in popularity recently, coinciding with the rapid development of the field of serious (or impact) games [1, 2]. While there has been much focus on understanding the efficacy of these systems as interventions to reduce racial bias, there has been less attention paid to how individuals' prior physical-world racial attitudes influence their experiences of such games about racial issues. Toward addressing this gap, the study presented here examines the relationships between PreK-12 educators' colorblind racial attitudes and their game experience and narrative interpretations in narrative videogame modeling racial and ethnic socialization called Passage Home. Passage Home embeds a novel computational model and simulation informed by the Racial Encounter Coping Appraisal and Socialization Theory (RECAST) [3] to simulate a discriminatory racial encounter in a classroom setting. The system serves as a tool for assessing players' racial and ethnic socialization (RES) experiences to support interventions for learning about racial bias. This paper presents the results of a user study deploying Passage Home with PreK-12 educators. Analysis revealed that players' colorblind racial attitudes and ethnic identity were related to their in-game racial appraisal and feelings of competence, negative affect, and empathy in the game. Given the prevalence of colorblind racial ideology across racial and ethnic groups in the United States [4, 5], we propose an initial typology of players' colorblind racial attitudes emerging from this analysis to aid in the future development of serious game interventions addressing racial discrimination. CCS CONCEPTS • Applied computing → Computers in other domains; Personal computers and PC applications; Computer games; • Humancentered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI); HCI design and evaluation methods; User studies.

What my bias meant for my embodiment: an investigation on virtual embodiment in desktop-based virtual reality

“…Although the embodiment of an avatar and bias change have been largely unexplored on desktop-based VR, there has been similar work in terms of creating VR applications that can be reached by a greater population. For example, Olson et al (2020) created Passage Home, a game that challenges users to think critically in the light of racial accusations. The game was designed for HMD-based VR but was ported over to a web browser-based system due to the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing users to access the platform remotely.…”

Moving towards the End of Gender Differences in the Habits of Use and Consumption of Mobile Video Games

“…In terms of studies on motivations in video games, interesting research has also been carried out. Fox et al and Biolcati et al focused on the motivations of massively multiplayer games [21,22], and there have also been studies investigating motivations for certain video games [23][24][25] and in university students [26].…”