Does playing the serious game B-SaFe! make citizens more aware of man-made and natural risks in their environment?

Anita Cremers, Hester Stubbe, Dolf van der Beek, Maaike Roelofs, José Kerstholt

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)
25 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to investigate whether playing a serious game concerning natural and man-made risks leads to increased risk awareness and additional information search. As an experimental task, we developed a serious board game. Fifty-six students participated in the experiment; half of them played the serious game whereas the other half only filled in a questionnaire at pretest and posttest (after two weeks). Participants who had played the game were more aware of risks in their own environment. Furthermore, playing the serious game counterbalanced the decline in self-efficacy as seen in the control condition. In both conditions, participants gathered more information on natural risks. This positive effect in the control condition is probably a side effect of the method used: a reasonably elaborate questionnaire in combination with a delay of two weeks. In all, the results provide a positive basis for further development of the game and to use it on a larger scale to empower citizens to take more responsibility for their own safety.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1280-1292
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of risk research
Volume18
Issue number10
Early online date22 May 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2015

Keywords

  • n/a OA procedure
  • serious gaming
  • man-made risks
  • risk awareness
  • risk perception
  • information search
  • self-efficacy

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