Video games are increasingly portraying many topics that we face in our everyday lives. Yet we have only limited evidence about the way narrative games affect how we think about the topics they depict; in other words, about the link between these games and attitude change. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis of video games’ effect on attitudinal change. The findings suggest that narrative video games affect players’ attitudes towards the topics depicted in games. This effect was present in studies focused on changes in both implicit (g = 0.36, k = 18) and explicit attitudes (g = 0.24, k = 101). Longer intervention duration and game mechanics such as stereotyping and meaningful feedback resulted in larger implicit attitude change. Regarding the robustness of the underlying evidence, half of the included studies were judged to be at high risk of bias. On the other hand, the impact of publication bias in this literature was found to be negligible. Altogether, this meta-analysis provides evidence that video games shape how we think about topics they represent.

电子游戏越来越多地描绘我们日常生活中面临的许多主题。然而，关于叙事游戏如何影响我们对其所描绘的主题的思考方式，我们只有有限的证据。换句话说，关于这些游戏和态度改变之间的联系。因此，我们对视频游戏对态度变化的影响进行了荟萃分析。研究结果表明，叙事视频游戏会影响玩家对游戏中描绘的主题的态度。这种效应存在于关注内隐态度（g = 0.36，k = 18）和外显态度（g = 0.24，k = 101）变化的研究中。较长的干预持续时间和游戏机制（例如刻板印象和有意义的反馈）会导致更大的隐性态度变化。关于基础证据的稳健性，一半的纳入研究被认为存在高偏倚风险。另一方面，发现该文献中发表偏见的影响可以忽略不计。总而言之，这项荟萃分析提供了证据，表明视频游戏塑造了我们对其所代表的主题的看法。