(6) Beyond Fun: Negative Emotions Predict Pro Environmental Attitudes and Behaviour in a Persuasive Ecogame

Persuasive video games are increasingly used to foster pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour, yet the role of emotions in these processes remains underexplored. This study examined how positive vs. negative emotions relate to attitude change and pro-environmental behaviour following play of Gibbon: Beyond the Trees, a commercially available ecogame about palm-oil-driven habitat destruction. Sixty-seven adults played the full story of the game in a laboratory setting. Palm-oil-related pro-environmental attitudes were measured before and after gameplay; the measure of pro-environmental behaviour was operationalised as voluntary donations to one of three environmental NGOs deducted from a 20 € participation compensation. Emotions were assessed via (1) self-reported pre–post emotions, (2) automated facial expression analysis during gameplay, and (3) post-hoc evaluation of game experience. Playing the game led to a medium-sized increase in palm-oil-related attitudes and substantial donations (≈ 45% of compensation). Multiple regression analyses showed that self-reported increases in negative emotions significantly predicted both post-game attitudes and donation amounts beyond baseline attitudes, whereas positive emotions did not. In contrast, neither facially detected emotions nor post-hoc game experience scores explained additional variance in attitudes or behaviour. The findings underscore the importance of negative emotions for the effectiveness of persuasive ecogames and support a eudaimonic design perspective that elicits mixed, emotionally moving experiences rather than relying solely on positive emotions.

Recommended citation: Edlinger, M., Huber, S. E., Ninaus M. (2027): Beyond Fun: Negative Emotions Predict Pro Environmental Attitudes and Behaviour in a Persuasive Ecogame. In: Bucchiarone, A. Göbl, B., Hoermann, S., Bakkes, S., Pasqualotto, A., Dondio, P. (eds.): Games and Learning Alliance. GALA 2026 (pp. 97-111). Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 17165. Cham: Springer
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