Design and Evaluation of COVID Pacman – A Persuasive Game to Promote the Awareness and Adoption of COVID-19 Precautionary Measures Tailored to the Stages of Change

Abstract

Persuasive games are widely implemented in the healthcare domain to promote behaviour change among individuals. Previous research shows that using persuasive games results in increased motivation and awareness that led to a positive change in behaviour. However, there is little knowledge on which persuasive strategies will motivate people at different Stages of Behaviour Change and whether tailoring persuasive games to match user’s stage of change will increase their effectiveness. To address this gap, we designed two different versions of a persuasive game using different persuasive strategies to target people at different stages change. The two versions of the game called COVID Pacman target the same goal of motivating the adoption of COVID-19 precautionary measures. The results of our study (N=127) followed by a semi-structured interview of 18 participants show that playing tailored persuasive game to individual's stages of change is effective as compared to playing non-tailored game.