Society's most pressing problems involve social dilemmas, yet few individuals recognize and understand their core components. We examined how a serious social dilemma game used in an educational setting impacted understanding of a classic social dilemma, the tragedy of the commons. Participants (N = 186) were randomly assigned to one of two gameplay conditions or a Lesson-Only condition without the game (traditional lesson with a reading). In the Explore-First condition, participants played the game as an exploratory learning activity before the lesson. In the Lesson-First condition, participants played the game after the lesson. Both gameplay conditions were rated as more interesting than the Lesson-Only condition. However, participants in the Explore-First condition exhibited higher conceptual understanding and spontaneous transfer to real-world dilemmas than the other conditions, which did not differ. These benefits were selective to social concepts (e.g., self-interest, interdependency) explored via gameplay. These benefits did not occur for ecological concepts (e.g., scarcity, tragedy), which were taught to everyone during the beginning instructions. Policy preferences were equal across conditions. Serious social dilemma games offer a promising educational tool for conceptual development when students can explore the complexities of social dilemmas for themselves. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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在教学之前玩社交困境游戏作为探索性学习活动可以提高概念理解。

社会最紧迫的问题涉及社会困境，但很少有人认识并理解其核心组成部分。我们研究了在教育环境中使用的严肃的社会困境游戏如何影响对经典社会困境——公地悲剧的理解。参与者 (N = 186) 被随机分配到两种游戏条件之一或没有游戏的仅课程条件（带阅读的传统课程）。在探索先行的情况下，参与者在课前将游戏作为探索性学习活动进行。在 Lesson-First 条件下，参与者在课后玩游戏。两种游戏条件都被评为比仅上课条件更有趣。然而，Explore-First 条件下的参与者表现出比其他条件更高的概念理解和自发转移到现实世界的困境，这没有什么不同。这些好处对通过游戏玩法探索的社会概念（例如，自利、相互依存）具有选择性。这些好处并没有出现在生态概念（例如，稀缺、悲剧）中，这些概念在最初的说明中被教授给每个人。不同条件下的政策偏好是平等的。当学生可以自己探索社会困境的复杂性时，严肃的社会困境游戏为概念发展提供了一个有前途的教育工具。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2023 APA，保留所有权利）。相互依赖）通过游戏探索。这些好处并没有出现在生态概念（例如，稀缺、悲剧）中，这些概念在最初的说明中被教授给每个人。不同条件下的政策偏好是平等的。当学生可以自己探索社会困境的复杂性时，严肃的社会困境游戏为概念发展提供了一个有前途的教育工具。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2023 APA，保留所有权利）。相互依赖）通过游戏探索。这些好处并没有出现在生态概念（例如，稀缺、悲剧）中，这些概念在最初的说明中被教授给每个人。不同条件下的政策偏好是平等的。当学生可以自己探索社会困境的复杂性时，严肃的社会困境游戏为概念发展提供了一个有前途的教育工具。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2023 APA，保留所有权利）。