Abstract:
Video games have grown in storytelling and graphical accomplishment in the past couple
decades, and studies into how they can promote prosocial behavior and empathy are needed to
better understand how this media can promote positive psychological development in
adolescents. One video game that is popular with this demographic is Minecraft: Education
Edition, which offers structured lesson plans that promote empathy and prosocial behavior.
This thesis documents a study that uses quantitative analysis to better understand the
relationship between Minecraft: Education Edition and the promotion of empathy and prosocial
behavior in these lesson plans. The study results partially support the hypotheses that individuals
who play a video game with lesson plans specifically designed to instruct them to act
empathetically will show more empathy and prosocial behaviors in the short term than those who
play the same game without predetermined goals or lesson plans. Although there was not a
significant difference between the two groups in the total score for the three scales measuring
empathy or prosocial behavior, one individual item score on each scale was significantly or
marginally improved in the experimental group. These three individual items were related to
prosocial behavior and perspective taking, which is a subset of empathy.
