LOOk: Exploring the effect of game-play on the salience bias

Abstract

Cognitive biases affect the choices we make and affect selection processes. Biased hiring processes affect the quality of hires by valuing salient features such as age or skin colour over the quality of an applicant. Hence, there is a need for unobtrusive trainings to combat cognitive biases. Video games are a promising avenue to reduce cognitive biases, because they allow to engage and train in cognitive challenges. To address attention biases, and bias to focus on most salient features (salience bias) specifically, we built LOOk, a first-person game that requires attention to detail. We investigated if the attentional activation of playing LOOk transferred to a custom built hiring task, the Photo test. Our results suggest that there are no transfer effects after playing LOOk. We find variance in replies to the Photo test, suggesting potential of the test, but no effects of the game intervention. The lack of results raises questions about how to design game play as an intervention for cognitive biases.