Open Mind

In today’s political climate people can sometimes struggle to talk in a civil manner about complicated topics, such as climate change, the ‘woke’ movement, vaccination and other polarizing topics. Open Mind is an educational game, as part of a larger research project1 fostering an open mind and open attitude in higher education using games and art-based educational activities, that encourages open dialogue about these kinds of topics by making players more aware of their biases, while further developing critical thinking skills and empathy levels.
In the game, the player will talk to various characters about various topics. While playing the game, the player will gather information about the characters in the game. The goal is to correctly identify a character in the game by making use of the information gathered during the game. However, the information the player can gather is limited, so they will have to make assumptions about people. Will they be aware of your biases, or fall prey to them?