Cross-cultural mobile game evaluation shows improvement in environmental learning, but not behavior

Abstract

Games have a wide range of potential uses, from mediating conservation conflicts to changing behaviors. However, there have been few impact evaluations of serious games published in the environmental field. We conducted the first cross-cultural evaluation of an environmental mobile game, Save The Purple Frog. In a randomized control trial with both UK and Indian participants, we found very strong evidence that Save The Purple Frog had a positive impact on learning (effect size 0.62, p = 0.0001), but no evidence that it affected behaviors or attitudes. Our study contributes to the evidence base for environmental serious games, demonstrating their potential as an engaging tool for environmental education. We suggest examining the impact of longer gameplay as a future research direction, as well as exploring different gameplay styles.