Persuasive games for intergenerational social interaction in urban environments

Abstract

Social isolation in urban areas is a societal challenge. It affects people of all ages but particularly elderly who struggle to maintain social ties into later-life. Interventions in social isolation primarily focus on elderly in clinical care, overlooking the existence of older adults who live independently. Despite facing dwindling social contact, groups of healthy older adults reside alongside large groups of younger citizens that might offer much needed social interaction. This type of intergenerational social interaction seems promising but motivations of elderly to engage with younger groups who are not necessarily related to them are not well-understood and vice-versa. Persuasive games have the potential to encouraging social interaction. This paper presents a preliminary work on investigating motivations for intergenerational interaction rooted in persuasion theory. It proposes the use of the Integrated Behavior Model as a theoretical framework for understanding behavioral determinants and explores the use of games as a way of fostering changes in attitudes that could enhance intergenerational interactions.