The Impact of Touch Screen Tablet Caring Games on Empathic Concern and Compassion in Young Children

Tablet apps that simulate caring for virtual characters have gained considerable popularity among preschoolers. These games involve taking care of virtual pets, babies, or distressed characters on touch screens. Although there are claims that these games enhance empathy and prosocial behavior, there is little research on their impact. The two experiments here explored whether playing touch screen tablet games that involve caring for virtual characters had an influence on preschoolers' compassion and how young children's emerging theory-of-mind and developing emotional regulation abilities moderate the relationship between these caring games and compassion towards real others. In both experiments, 3 to 6-year-olds were randomly assigned to one of three game conditions (caring, violent, or neutral). Children's empathic concern and prosocial behavior towards distressed characters were assessed on laboratory tasks and on vignettes after playing the game. Experiment 1 (N = 192) showed that playing a caring game led to higher levels of empathic concern and helping behavior towards a distressed experimenter than violent or neutral games. In Experiment 2 (N = 188), playing a caring game resulted in higher levels of empathy and prosocial behavior towards hypothetical same-aged peers in need, as compared to the violent or neutral game conditions. Compassion after playing the caring game increased the most in children who scored low on theory-of-mind, or who scored high on emotional regulation abilities. These results suggest that playing caring touch screen games lend weight to the assumption that they may promote empathic concern and compassionate behavior towards distressed others in early childhood.