RAPID: Development and deployment of a digital game to combat COVID-19 misconceptions

早期报告显示，公众对新型冠状病毒的风险、传播、预防和治疗有几个误解。如果不采取行动，这种误解可能会对个人和社会造成严重和不可逆转的伤害。这个项目回应了人们对更有效地纠正对新冠肺炎的误解的迫切需要，并对之前改变人们对有争议或情绪化话题的看法的失败尝试做出了改进。通过数字游戏促进情感投入，这个项目试图克服信仰改变的一些心理障碍。通过游戏化广泛传播的潜力将为游戏化的数字平台是否可能成为克服传统信仰修正直接途径的限制的场所提供重要的见解。该项目将为以下紧迫问题提供重要见解：游戏化的教育内容是否能有效纠正情感充斥和两极分化的新冠肺炎误解。该项目为成功修订新冠肺炎误解提供的解决方案集中在两个相互关联的目标上：(1)专门设计内容，以促进已知的修正误解的认知过程的形式；(2)开发一种新的交付方法来呈现此类内容，以减轻负面影响和偏见推理。这个项目将解决一种新颖的数字游戏的这两个问题，该游戏整合了认知和游戏化设计原则，用于信念修正，并可能代表着个人如何与具有挑战性的教育内容互动的变革性增强。这款数字游戏将在美国在线广泛传播，可以在移动或桌面设备上玩。总体而言，智力竞赛将被设计为在学习者通过游戏元素和机制处理教育内容时积极参与。平台上的情感、信念和用户交互将被挖掘，以获得相关的学习者分析变量、概况和成功的预测因素。调查结果将被用来反复修改后续的游戏开发和设计，以优化成功指标。该项目将促进对数字学习背景和过程的基本知识，以纠正具有挑战性的误解，并解决国家对加强普通公众对COVID-19的了解的重要关切。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Early reports show that the general public holds several misconceptions regarding the risks, transmission, prevention, and treatment of the novel coronavirus. If not acted upon, such misconceptions may lead to serious and irreversible harm to individuals and societies. This project responds to the urgent need to more effectively correct misconceptions about COVID-19 and to improve upon prior failed attempts to change beliefs about controversial or emotionally-laden subjects. By promoting affective engagement via digital games, this project seeks to overcome some of the psychological barriers to belief change. The potential for broad dissemination through gamification will provide important insights into whether gamified digital platforms may be a venue to overcome limitations of traditional direct routes of belief revision. The project will provide important insights into the pressing question of whether gamified educational content can effectively correct emotionally-laden and polarized COVID-19 misconceptions.The solutions this project provides for successful revision of COVID-19 misconception centers on two interlocking objectives: (1) design of content specifically to promote the forms of cognitive processes known to revise misconceptions and (2) develop a new delivery method to present such content that mitigates negative affect and biased reasoning. This project will address both problems with a novel digital game that integrates cognitive and gamification design principles for belief revision and may represent a transformational augmentation in how individuals interact with challenging educational content. The digital game will be widely disseminated online in the U.S. and can be played on mobile or desktop devices. Overall, the quiz game will be designed to positively engage learners as they process educational content via game elements and mechanics. Affect, belief, and user interactions on the platform will be data mined for relevant learner analytic variables, profiles, and predictors of success. Findings will be used to iteratively modify subsequent game development and design to optimize success metrics. The project will advance fundamental knowledge of digital learning contexts and processes in correcting challenging misconceptions and address important national concerns of strengthening the general public’s knowledge of COVID-19.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.