Using Empathy Games in the Social Sciences | Editors' Picks - EDUCAUSE Review

When used in a structured situation that includes supporting materials and discussions, empathy games can help deepen students' understanding of key topics in the humanities and social sciences.

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Abi Johnson, Instructional Designer at the College of Saint Rose says, The use of both virtual and physical games in the classroom is well-documented; there are books, essays, and entire conferences on the topic. 

Photo: Niyazz / Shutterstock.com © 2019

The theory seems sound: games are made up of rules, a goal, a feedback system, and voluntary participation.¹ A classroom, arguably, is made up of the same four things.

What interests me about games and the classroom is the idea of embodiment. David Surman defines embodiment as a collapse of the player and the player-character whereby "player-characters become a surrogate second self."² That is, the player embodies the game's protagonist. Through the protagonist, the player solves the puzzle, defeats the dragon, and rescues the princess. Embodiment allows the player to develop a stronger connection with the subject matter than would be possible through other mediums. There is a heavier emotional weight when one performs actions oneself. During a horror movie, for example, viewers might yell at the screen and tell a character not to open a door. When playing a horror game, players are trapped in that hallway—with no option left but to open the door.This changes the player's perspective of the situation drastically.

As a women's, gender, and sexuality studies graduate and instructor, I think the idea of embodiment becomes even more interesting when it is applied to the humanities or social sciences classroom. These disciplines require students to see issues from another person's or group's viewpoint...

An Empathy Games Assignment 

On Female Body Experience:
"Throwing Like a Girl"
and Other Essays

To put this theory into practice, I created an assignment in the form of an informal case study. I formed my assignment around work that Samantha Allen, an instructor at Emory University, wrote about in 2014.⁷ In that study, she assigned students to read Iris Marion Young's essay "Throwing Like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment, Motility, and Spatiality," which explores women's movement in public space compared to men's and argues that (among other things) women make an effort to take up less physical space than men.⁸ After completing the reading assignment, students were then instructed to play three games created by and about trans women. 

Source: EDUCAUSE Review