Can this video game teach children to be more empathetic?

Could this experimental game, targeted at middle school children, have the power to improve their empathy?

The paper titled "Neural correlates of video game empathy training in adolescents: a randomized trial" was published in npj Science of Learning on Aug. 7. The research was funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In the game, the player has to control the robot and help it understand and collaborate with the aliens who have human-like facial features. Aside from training recognition of six basic emotions (anger, fear, happiness, surprise, disgust, and sadness), the player should also assess the intensity of these emotions and respond in an empathetic manner.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) developed the game to find out how picking up these emotional skills could change neural connections in the brain.

"The realization that these skills are actually trainable with video games is important because they are predictors of emotional well-being and health throughout life, and can be practiced anytime — with or without video games," said Tammi Kral, a UW-Madison graduate student in psychology.

Kral led the research at the Center for Healthy Minds at the university. A total of 150 middle school students were recruited and randomly assigned to play Crystals of Kaydor or a different video game called Bastion. The latter, a commercially available control game, was not designed to improve or measure empathy.

Within a fortnight, it was found children who played Crystals of Kaydor had greater connectivity in brain networks related to empathy and perspective taking. This change was seen in the MRI scans, performed before and after the children played the game.

Some children also showed altered neural networks commonly linked to emotion regulation and were also able to improve their scores on an empathy test.

"If we can't empathize with another's difficulty or problem, the motivation for helping will not arise," said Richard Davidson, director of the center and a professor of psychology and psychiatry at UW-Madison.

He believed one of the key challenges was to identify which children will benefit most from this type of training. There was particular interest in conducting further research to see if such games that cultivate empathy could help children who are on the autism spectrum.

"Our long-term aspiration for this work is that video games may be harnessed for good and if the gaming industry and consumers took this message to heart, they could potentially create video games that change the brain in ways that support virtuous qualities rather than destructive qualities."

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