Random App of Kindness: Evaluating the Potential of a Smartphone Intervention to Impact Adolescents' Empathy, Prosocial Behavior, and Aggression

Videogames, including smartphone app games, can be effective teachers. Meta-analytic reviews find that prosocial media can increase empathy and prosocial behavior. We developed a prosocial smartphone app game, Random App of Kindness (RAKi), using theoretically informed empathy-building practices, in the hopes of increasing empathy and prosocial behavior, and decreasing aggressive behaviors. RAKi includes nine mini-games that take only seconds to play (e.g., recognizing emotions, caring for a crying baby, petting a sad dog). We randomly assigned 106 preteens and teens aged 10-17 (and their parents) to play RAKi or a control app for 2 months. We assessed baseline and postintervention scores on empathy, prosocial behavior, and aggression-related outcomes in the laboratory. Participants who played RAKi (compared to a control app) felt more compassion for someone in need, behaved in empathic ways while interacting with a stranger, were less likely to endorse physical aggression, and behaved less aggressively toward a peer (if they started with lower trait empathy). However, RAKi did not significantly influence participants' trait empathy levels. Media can be used for good or ill. RAKi appears to accomplish a number of positive outcomes after only 2 months of gameplay.