Climate change presents complex global challenges requiring innovative approaches to foster political engagement. Video games emerge as a promising tool for facilitating democratic and participatory processes due to their popularity across diverse sociodemographic groups on a global level. This exploratory study investigates the potential of video games as tools for engaging the public with climate change and identifying socially acceptable climate actions. Using data from approximately 2,100 participants across 79 countries collected via a popular multiplayer video game, it explores attitudes towards climate policies within a gamer population to assess policy support and the role of games in climate action. Psychometric network analysis was used to examine connections between attitudes towards six climate policy areas, perceptions of games as tools for climate action, and sociodemographic factors. The main findings reveal strong interconnections among policy areas, with economic, food, and disaster adaptation policies emerging as key factors in the network. Most participants believed games could address climate change, particularly by raising awareness and educating players. However, this belief was not linked to supporting climate polices. Sociodemographic factors had only a minor influence on the attitude network. This study highlights the utility of video games in exploring climate policy support and their potential for engaging the public in climate action. While the link between gaming-related beliefs and policy support is limited, video games could improve public understanding of climate action. Future research should investigate psychological mechanisms driving gaming-related beliefs and their relationship with political behaviour.
Koller, Katharina (Thu,) studied this question.