>Game dev
>Read a persuasive meta-analysis which found that playing games with prosocial values makes people behave in a prosocial way
>Feel guilty about making a game with antisocial values when I could be making a game with the same mechanics but a prosocial theme and thus make the world a better place
>Emotionally love stories filled with carnage and find prosocial stuff icky
Help I'm torn up between duty and my desire to facilitate the murder of virtual people
>Source?
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262379760_Gaming_for_good_Video_games_and_enhancing_prosocial_behaviour
>What's a prosocial game?
A game which contains a large number of scenes where you help people out and have positive interactions with friendly characters.
>Is the effect actually significant?
Possibly. One study found that people who were made to play City Crisis, a game where you play a helicopter pilot who saves people from disasters of various sorts, were more likely to intervene upon encountering a staged situation where one actor was being bullied by another. The participants did not know that the situation was staged.
>Is this a long term effect?
Possibly. One large study found that Japanese kids who played prosocial games were more likely to behave in a prosocial fashion 4 months later. This, however, is not conclusive evidence.
>Were there any other interesting findings?
Yes. People who were made to play games that are neither prosocial nor antisocial were more prosocial than people who were not made to play a game. People who were made to play an antisocial game cooperatively exhibited more prosocial behavior than people who were not made to play a game.
What is your opinion of this paper? I know that the replication crisis is A Thing and that the sample sizes were small but when a lot of small experiments all points in the same direction that's usually a sign that the researchers are on to something.
