Mitigating Bias Blind Spot via a Serious Videogame

• In Event: Learning From (and With) Video Games II

Abstract

This study employed a serious videogame to train participants on bias blind spot (BBS), capturing the effects of the game on BBS knowledge and mitigation at three points in time (pretest, posttest after playing the videogame, and after 8 weeks). In Experiment 1 (N = 703) we compared the effects of hybrid training (a combination of implicit and explicit training) to implicit training; in Experiment 2 (N = 620) we tested the effects of just-in-time feedback and delayed feedback; and in Experiment 3 (N = 626) we examined the effects of singleplayer and multiplayer versions of the game. In addition, we tested differences in game duration and repetition. Overall, the results indicated that playing the training videogame, regardless of experimental condition, resulted in a linear decrease in BBS scores over time, and an increase in BBS knowledge at posttest; the effects on knowledge, however, decayed at 8 weeks.

Authors

• Elena Bessarabova, University of Oklahoma

• Cameron Wade Piercy, U of Oklahoma

• Shawn King, U of Oklahoma

• Cindy S. Vincent, Salem State University

• Norah E. Dunbar, U of California Santa Barbara

• Judee K. Burgoon, U of Arizona

• Claude H Miller, U of Oklahoma

• Matthew Jensen, U of Oklahoma

• Aaron Elkins, Imperial College London

• David Wilson, U of Arizona

• Scott Wilson, U of Oklahoma

• Yu-Hao Lee, University of Florida