Educating moral sensitivity in business: An experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of a serious moral game

Carmen Tanner,David Schmocker,Johannes Katsarov,Markus Christen

doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104381

Carmen Tanner, David Schmocker + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104381

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Abstract

Serious games have emerged as a promising new form of education and training. Even though the benefits of serious games for education are undisputed, there is still a further need for research on the efficacy of such games. The main goal of our research is to examine the effectiveness of a serious moral game—uFin: The Challenge—that was designed to promote moral sensitivity in business, a precondition of ethical decision-making and behavior and a core moral competency of moral intelligence. A second goal is to examine the role of metacognitive prompting and prosocial nudging in influencing learning effectiveness. Participants (N = 345) took part in an experimental game-based intervention study and completed a pre- and post-test questionnaire assessing moral sensitivity. The analyses of both questionnaire and game data suggest that merely playing this game is effective in promoting moral sensitivity. Neither self-reflection nor exposure to prosocial nudges, however, were determined to be factors that improve learning effectiveness. In contrast, those interventions even decreased the learning outcome in some cases. Overall, findings demonstrate the potential for game-based learning in the moral domain. An important avenue for future research is to examine others ways of increasing the effectiveness of the game.

Highlights

IntroductionGiven the pervasive trend toward gameplay and the challenge of creating more engaging educational practices, serious games (often referred to as educational games) have become increasingly popular among professional trainers and educators
Given the pervasive trend toward gameplay and the challenge of creating more engaging educational practices, serious games have become increasingly popular among professional trainers and educators
The main goal of our research is to examine the effectiveness of a serious moral game—uFin: The Challenge—that was designed to promote moral sensitivity in business, a precondition of ethical decision-making and behavior and a core moral competency of moral intelligence

Summary

Introduction

Given the pervasive trend toward gameplay and the challenge of creating more engaging educational practices, serious games (often referred to as educational games) have become increasingly popular among professional trainers and educators. To promote more satisfactory ways of teaching business ethics and internalizing ethical values in business (Sholihin, Sari, Yunarity, & Ilyana, 2020), there is a growing interest in the development of serious moral games (SMGs)—computer or video games designed for the purpose of developing moral competencies (Christen, Faller, Gotz, & Müller, 2013; Flanagan & Nissenbaum, 2014; Schrier, 2015; Schrier & Gibson, 2010). Serious games allow people to explore alternative ways of behaviors in a “safe” environment, which supports the acquisition of tacit knowledge (Jansz, 2005; Kirriemuir & McFarlane, 2004; Westera, 2017)

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