Promoting Healthy Behaviors Through an RPG Videogame: An Elaboration Likelihood Model Based Approach

Serious games, due to their massiveness, attractiveness, and enjoyment, are widely used for education, promoting healthy behaviors, and for the prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STI). Serious game design includes tailored narratives, game mechanics, and art for their purpose. Nevertheless, using theories of attitude change to create a videogame to promote healthy behavior is less common. Following contemporary theories on persuasion, we developed and tested an RPG videogame for mobile phones, in which participants had to think in favor of the use of condoms through a series of tasks within the game in order to promote positive attitudes and consonant behavioral intention (BI). Results show a positive correlation between thoughts, attitudes, and BI, and that attitudes can partially mediate (account for) the association between thoughts and BI. In this exploratory study, we showed that 1) it was possible to include an Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)-based approach into a videogame; 2) consistent with previous studies, attitudes partially mediated the association between thoughts and condom use (BI) in a videogame environment; and 3) applications of this strategy can be considered in the game design process to build new serious games for prevention in health care.