Increasing Societal Well-Being Through Enhanced Empathy Using Computer Games

Abstract

Well-being has been the focus of much discussion within a diverse array of disciplines. These discussions tend to define well-being from one of two general philosophical conceptualizations, namely hedonism and eudaimonism. Well-being from a hedonic point of view can be roughly understood as 'pleasure focused' while eudaimonic well-being can be regarded, roughly speaking, as 'meaning and virtue focused'. In today's society, well-being and/or happiness is often understood in a hedonistic and non-eudaimonistic way. We live in an increasingly technological age and the influence of that technology is not just at a superficial level but pervades every aspect of our lives at a practical level but also at a more fundamental level of our very being. The challenge is to harness the power of that technology in a positive way and to reduce the opportunities for negative influences, whilst being aware that deciding what is positive and what is negative is fraught with moral philosophical difficulties. Rather than focusing only on the end product, our thesis is that there is a need for a more integrative approach that will lead to understanding at different levels of explanation. This differs somewhat from the more fragmented approach of those who seek first to identify the mechanism that encourages empathy and then design technology and computer games to promote pro-social behavior in the real world, or indeed ignore neuroscience research. Why not actually use technology and computer games to identify the mechanisms? To a large extent the fundamental tools to achieve this are already in place and will continue to develop. Theory, research design and measurement within psychosocial and behavioural approaches to well-being, empathy, aggression and so on are increasingly insightful and sophisticated. Cognitive neuroscience has advanced from the study of isolated brain processes to what we now call 'social neuroscience' or 'social cognitive neuroscience' or even 'social cognitive and affective neuroscience' with a focus on the 'social brain' with 'computational social neuroscience' a fledgling subfield. Similar advances in neuroendocrinology allow complex systems modeling and the level of sophistication and rate of development within computer gaming is clear. All of this can be utilized in the study of empathy and its relationship to pro-social behaviour and ultimately individual and societal well-being. In this endeavour, computer technology plays a dual role, being a part of the research stimuli (e.g. computer game) and also in measurement of outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)