Empathy and Self-efficacy Contributions to Water Resilience and the Role of a Serious Game

While effective water governance is central to sustaining life, billions of people are without access to safe drinking water, and fears of water security and climate change continue to grow. The concept of "water resilience" may help address these issues by improving water security through climate risk management, yet societal acceptance still remains a barrier. Knowing what motivates citizens to support water resilience will drive governance shifts and societal change. The social cognition approach—how people think about and interpret environmental problems—strongly influences behaviour. Empathy and self-efficacy represent two of the most influential psychological drivers for engaging in sustainable practices in support of water resilience. This study explores whether The Flood Resilience Challenge, a serious game can promote traits of empathy, self-efficacy, and the endorsement of strategies for water resilience. Using a mixed-methods approach with 59 participants, the study measured changes in these traits before and after gameplay. Quantitative results showed no statistically significant increases in empathy, self-efficacy or water resilience endorsement from the Flood Resilience Challenge game intervention. However, the relationship between empathy and water resilience endorsement became stronger post-intervention, suggesting that empathy remained a key component in fostering engagement in water resilience. Additionally, the post-intervention correlation between self-efficacy and water resilience endorsement shifted from not significant to significant, suggesting that increases in self-efficacy were associated with greater water resilience engagement after the intervention. Self-efficacy’s post-game link to water resilience suggests that belief in one’s ability can strengthen resilience efforts. These correlations flag potential roles for both empathy and self-efficacy in promoting engagement with water resilience issues, as well as the role of the Flood Resilience Challenge game in fostering these relationships. Qualitative feedback revealed that participants gained empathy through marginalized perspectives and developed self efficacy via role-based decision-making. These findings highlight the potential of serious games to support water resilience principles, suggesting that future research should refine game elements to maximize their psychological impact on sustainable water governance.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Sustainability

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Faculty of Social Sciences

Department dc:contributor.department

Environmental Sustainability Research Centre

Grantor

Brock University

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Momin Zaara

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Baird Julia

• SOCIAL SCIENCES::Social sciences::Psychology::Environmental psychology

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10464/19201

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:brocku.scholaris.ca:10464/19201