Effects of a Game-Based Empathy Education Program Linked to the Sustainable Development Goals: Utilizing the RealLives Simulation Game

This study developed and evaluated a game-based empathy education program linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which developed and evaluated the simulation game RealLives as an instructional tool, thus enabling learners’ diverse experiences across countries and social contexts. The research included four stages—design, development, implementation, and evaluation—and was applied to 60 participants (30 university and 30 high school students) in Seoul. After the program, students’ reflective essays were collected and analyzed using qualitative coding, language network analysis, and topic modeling. We found that learners demonstrated empathy across the cognitive, emotional, and attitudinal domains, with attitudinal empathy being the most frequent. Through immersive gameplay, the learners not only understood and shared others’ perspectives and feelings but also extended their reflections on personal commitment, social participation, and recognition of the need for structural improvement. Furthermore, the network and topic modeling analyses indicated that learners’ reflections were structured around themes such as life, nation, occupation, and happiness, all of which closely align with the SDGs. The results also suggest that game-based empathy education moved beyond knowledge transmission by fostering immersive experiences and critical reflection. The program effectively promoted empathy as a key competence of the Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education . Therefore, this study proposes a practical model of empathy-based learning that can be applied not only to home economics education but also to broader educational contexts.