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REVIEW article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1455005
This article is part of the Research Topic Green Lifestyle Transformation in the Digital Era View all 3 articles

Exploring the Role and Mechanisms of Environmental Serious Games in Promoting Pro-Environmental Decision-Making: A Focused Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

Provisionally accepted
Jinsong Chen Jinsong Chen 1Miao HE Miao HE 1Jing Chen Jing Chen 2,3*Chugong Zhang Chugong Zhang 4
  • 1 School of Business Administration, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang, China
  • 2 Sichuan Primary and Secondary School Safety Education and Management Research Center, Chengdu Normal University,, Chengdu, China
  • 3 School of Literature and Journalism, Chengdu Normal University, Chengdu, China
  • 4 Institute of Science Innovation and Culture, Rajamangala University of Technology Krungthep, Rajamangala, Thailand

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Environmental serious games aim to heighten players' awareness and comprehension of environmental issues, thus fostering pro-environmental decision-making. Research to date has affirmed these games' effectiveness in enhancing environmental knowledge and abilities, elevating consciousness regarding environmental matters, and promoting pro-environmental behavioral intentions and actions. Nonetheless, a detailed exploration into the precise mechanisms facilitating these impacts remains scarce. Leveraging theories of motivation, cognition, affect, and behavior, this paper outlines four hypothesized mechanisms of influence and introduces an Embodied-Enactive Cognition Model as a novel perspective. It suggests that future research should expand its inquiry into the multifaceted factors that influence pro-environmental decision-making, deepen the comprehension of the intrinsic mechanisms at play, pioneer novel research methodologies, and diversify the array of categories and contextual applications of environmental serious games.

    Keywords: Environmental protection, Serious game, Gamification, pro-environmental decisionmaking, pro-environmental behavior

    Received: 26 Jun 2024; Accepted: 03 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Chen, HE, Chen and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jing Chen, Sichuan Primary and Secondary School Safety Education and Management Research Center, Chengdu Normal University,, Chengdu, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.