In everyday life, people make snap judgments about others, often without realizing it. These judgments are shaped by cognitive shortcuts like attribution errors (blaming personality instead of context) and confirmation bias (seeking evidence that supports what we already believe). Our serious game, Among Bias, is targeted to teenagers 10-14, which takes place at Crestview School, where understanding your peers is part of the curriculum.

Welcome to Crestview School!

Where something unusual is happening. Students aren't just learning math and history; they're learning to understand each other!

At most schools, students form quick opinions: rude, weird, lazy. But at Crestview, students practice looking deeper. Everyone carries assumptions, shortcuts, and snap judgments. Rather than pretending they don't exist, students learn to question them.

Games for Change

Games can be powerful tools for social change. Building social empathy with a marginalised grouping, and codification, which involves analysis of a generative theme that is represented (Keating, 2016). Among Bias, features diverse characters and social themes that players encounter throughout gameplay. As players collect information and observe these characters' stories, they can spot stereotypes, challenge biases, and develop a deeper understanding of how prejudice works in real situations.

Psychologically rich experiences provoke reflection and perspective shifting, which are essential for meaningful cognitive change. Games, when designed with intention, offer these experiences. Games disrupt bias through four interconnected mechanisms (e.g., time with games, formal features, content, and context of use) (Oishi et al., 2021). Understanding these pathways is essential because bias operates through automatic assumptions, attentional patterns, interpretive frameworks, and social reinforcement (Subrahmanyam et. al, 2015).

Games do not just represent ideas through words or images; as we have deepened our understanding throughout this semester, they make arguments through their rules and systems, the importance of procedural rhetoric, which focuses on persuasion through process and interaction. Procedural rhetoric looks at how things work by creating systems that players must engage with. Among Bias focuses on procedural rhetoric throughout the design of the game, bias reduction is not just an individual achievement, but a collective responsibility, requiring players to take a perspective. The game systemically reinforces that addressing bias requires solidarity and allyship (Bogost, 2008).

As mentioned previously, players assume the role of a character with a different identity than their own; they must maintain two perspectives, their own and their character's. When they encounter a social scenario, they must consider multiple interpretations simultaneously. When the player constantly has to bounce between multiple perspectives, they are working on bias reduction by practicing situated scenarios that go against stereotypes.

Wise Interventions

Wise interventions are brief, theory-based exercises that change how people understand themselves and social situations. These interventions target specific unhelpful interpretations that prevent people from seizing opportunities and can create lasting positive change that ripples through someone's life (Walton & Wilson, 2018).

Among Bias functions as a wise intervention by using psychological principles to challenge biased thinking. By immersing players in scenarios with diverse characters facing various challenges, Among Bias does this by embedding players in dynamic social environments where attribution theory and confirmation bias are constantly at play. Players must interpret scenarios and make decisions based on limited information, and navigate the consequences of those choices, all while being exposed to diverse perspectives and situational complexity.

Procedural Rhetoric

The importance of procedural rhetoric focuses on persuasion through process and interactions. Procedural rhetoric looks at how things work by creating systems that players must engage with. Among Bias focuses on procedural rhetoric throughout the design of the game, bias reduction is not just an individual achievement, but a collective responsibility, requiring players to take a perspective. The game systemically reinforces that addressing bias requires solidarity and allyship (Bogost, 2008).

What Makes us Different

Traditional Approaches

Passive lectures telling you bias is bad
One-time workshop
Abstract concepts
Individual reflection only
Feels like homework
Shame-based ("Don't be biased")
Information delivery
Tells you what to think

Among Bias

Active experience of how bias happens
Repeated practice through replayable scenarios
Concrete school-based situations
Collaborative learning and shared accountability
Feels like play with purpose
Growth-based ("Here's how to recognize and interrupt bias")
A system that requires new thinking to succeed
Helps you experience bias and discover alternatives

The Key Difference: Among Bias doesn't punish players for mistakes, it creates a safe space to make them, reflect on them, and try again. This transforms bias from a shameful character flaw into a cognitive habit that everyone has, and everyone can work on.

Game Cards

Choose Your Character

Players get to choose between six diverse students, all with personalized hobbies carter to the character that they have chosen!

Risk Cards

Certain rooms will contain risk cards
Each card contains an individual risk or a community risk
After reading each scenario, choose whether you’d like to take the risk by yourself or as a group!
Outcome is random, embrace uncertainty!

Task Cards

Certain rooms will contain prompt cards
Each card asks a question based on a school situation and gives 3 answers to choose from
Your answer reflects your own bias meter!

Prompt Cards

Certain rooms will contain a Task Card
Each card puts the player into a real life scenario giving them the chance to reflect
You can either reflect by yourself or it could become a group topic!

Bias Meter

The first player to lower their Bias Meter to zero wins the game.
Reflect, predict, and choose wisely; your answers shape your path.

How to Play

Getting Started

Place all avatars on the Start space
Each player gets their own bias meter (Everyone starts at 8)
Each player rolls the die. The highest roll goes first
Play proceeds clockwise

On Your Turn

Spin to select a room and move your avatar there based on the Name of the Room
There will either be a Prompt, Task, or Risk card for you to draw
Each room will specify which card belongs to it

Executive Function Development Through Play

Play supports the development of executive function skills by offering low-stakes, motivating scenarios where individuals can practice self-regulation, build knowledge through exploratory play, and deepen social understanding through role play (Doebel & Lillard, 2023).

Role play and pretend play require us to hold multiple representations simultaneously, your perspective and your character's perspective. This provides opportunities to strengthen cognitive flexibility and improve control when presented with challenging scenarios.

When players assume the role of a character with a different identity than their own, they must maintain two perspectives at once. When they encounter a social scenario, they must consider multiple interpretations simultaneously.

When players constantly bounce between multiple perspectives, they're working on bias reduction by practicing situated scenarios that go against stereotypes.

Doebel and Lillard (2023) emphasize that the extent to which play produces developmental outcomes depends heavily on context. The most beneficial play involves:

Structured scenarios with clear goals
Multiple solution paths
Challenges that require collaborative decision-making
Opportunities for reflection

The reflection prompts built throughout the game create metacognition moments where players take a step back and analyze their thinking. This reflective practice transforms experience into learning.

Changes Through Repeated Play

Through repeated rounds of Among Bias, players should begin to develop specific cognitive and social skills.

The Changes We Expect:

1. Recognize Attribution Errors Players learn to catch themselves when they're blaming personality instead of considering context. "They're being rude" becomes "I wonder what's going on for them."

2. Challenge Confirmation Bias Instead of only seeking evidence that confirms initial impressions, players develop the habit of actively looking for disconfirming evidence.

3. Shift from Snap Judgments to Context-Sensitive Interpretations The automatic "that person is ____" transforms into "given the context, there could be multiple explanations."

4. Build Empathy and Perspective-Taking Skills By repeatedly stepping into different roles and considering alternative viewpoints, players strengthen their ability to understand experiences different from their own.

5. Develop the Habit of Pausing Perhaps most importantly, players learn to pause and reflect before forming conclusions, creating a gap between observation and judgment where more thoughtful interpretation can occur.

Meet The Authors

Eduardo Barrera

My name is Eduardo Barrera, and I’m a senior at Pacific University, majoring in Psychology. Creating Among Bias has been one of the highlights of my semester. Labels always follow people, shaping how they're treated and what opportunities they get. Among Bias matters to me because it's not preachy or finger-pointing. It creates a space where you can admit "I made an assumption" without feeling terrible; you just adjust your Bias Meter and try again. That permission to be imperfect while learning is everything. However, Among Bias isn’t just a regular board game; it allows you to choose your path and come with a competitive spirit of its own! I hope you have a wonderful time playing our game.

Teegan Skjonsby

My name is Teegan Skjonsby and I am a senior at Pacific University, majoring in Psychology. Creating our bias-themed Among Us game was a highlight for me because it felt like this perfect mix of creativity, teamwork, and real learning. I loved how we took a topic that can feel heavy or awkward and turned it into something interactive and fun, where everyone could participate without feeling judged. Being part of the process, brainstorming ideas, testing them out, laughing when things went wrong, and seeing it all finally come together made me feel genuinely proud. It wasn’t just a project; it was something we built together, and that sense of connection and accomplishment is what made it stand out so much for me. I hope you enjoy our game and genuinely feel impacted by it. We put a lot of thought into making it meaningful and fun, and my real hope is that it leaves you thinking a little differently while still having a good time playing

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