EduLARP as a tool for violent radicalization prevention

DiveIN developing eduLARP methodology to prevent violent radicalisation of young people Agenda ● Project description ● Radicalization ● Intellectual outputs ● EduLARP scenarios ● Research aims ● Definitions ● Research methods ● Results Project description ● KA2 Strategic Partnership for Youth ● Coordinator: Europe4Youth (Poland) ● Partner organizations: Hellenic Youth Participation (Greece), Nausika Educational Foundation (Poland), Hästekasen Gård Förening (Sweden) ● Aim: To design, test, and adapt the methodology of educational Live Action Role Playing games to address various stages of the radicalisation process among young people, and to assess its effectiveness in preventing, as well as deal with the violent radicalisation process, roots, and outputs. Radicalization ● Neutral phenomenon ● Attitudes familiar to active citizens: determination, activeness, and persistence to change the reality of an unjust status quo. ● Focus on violent radicalization: fruitful soil for extreme ideas to grow into accepting violence, as a justification for a greater cause. ● Radicalization process triggers: ❏ Individual ❏ Relational ❏ Mesosystemic ❏ Exosystemic ❏ Macrosystemic Radicalisation model (Fathali M. Moghaddam) Ground floor – relative deprivation First floor – adapting strategies to realise needs Second floor – displacement of aggression Third floor – moral engagement Fourth floor – moral engagement, categorical thinking Fifth floor – no inhibitions, terrorist acts Intellectual outputs IO1: Creating methodology IO2: Designing and conducting research IO3: Publishing manual EduLARP scenarios ● ● ● ● ● Polytropia: A cyberpunk chamber larp concerning trust relations between people, institutions and machines. School Council: A chamber larp about active participation, set in an alternate universe where everyone has superpowers. Edinu 2.0: A chamber larp in the fictional setting of Edinu, where a fifth wave of migration in a post-apocalyptic world takes place. Siege of Gimleby: A siege larp in the larp setting of Gimle. French Revolution: A chamber larp about the conflicts leading to the French Revolution, with real historical characters. Research Aims ● To measure the effectiveness of the edu-LARP methodology in the form of designed scenarios by demonstrating the existence of factors preventing radicalization in the educational outcomes: ○ Raising the level of empathy, understanding of motives, logic of different behaviors by all sides of ○ socio-political disputes (Hogan scale), Raising the level of self-efficacy, self-agency, self-confidence combined with a sense of belonging to a socio-political community expressed through the realization of one's own and other needs and social change with the use of socially accepted methods, and with respect for other people. Understanding one's own role in a society of diverse individuals. ○ ● On 2 levels: ● The effectiveness of the methodological features of the edu-LARP methodology (immersion, flow, emotional involvement, agency, etc.) and ● Effectiveness in terms of the content of educational outcomes. Definitions ● Empathy - relational and reactionary attitude towards unknown or ambiguous social situations, resulting in the search for the best solutions including the good of each participant. Understanding the motives of behavior and emotions indicates the ability to analyze and detect different perspectives, recognizing the values that lie behind each of them. ● Self-efficacy - belief in one's own strength and ability to succeed in socio-political undertakings, to meet the challenges ahead and successfully complete the task, as well as to have a positive attitude towards oneself. ● The sense of belonging goes hand in hand with the understanding of the role in the community / society - personal involvement in social life, the feeling of being important to others. ● * Acceptance of violence - allowing violence (imposing one's beliefs, values, will on others without consent or with opposition) as a means of achieving social goals. Research techniques ● Online questionnaires ● Individual in-depth interviews ● In-depth focus group interviews (with participants and NPCs) ● Observation sheets ● Participants - people testing the designed games: young people aged 16-30 from 4 countries selected for the presence of risk factors of radicalization to varying degrees. Each group was highly diverse. Visualisation of questionnaire results Visualisation of questionnaire results Visualisation of questionnaire results Visualisation of questionnaire results Visualisation of questionnaire results Visualisation of questionnaire results Results Level 1 - methodological features of eduLARP that helps de-radicalisation and prevention Elements of the eduLARP methodology enable deepening, understanding and entering the world of emotions and attitudes: ● Dedicated time and complexity of the experience, credible narration, background, music, costumes, proximity (not that much need of physical tasks) ● ● ● ● ● Elements facilitating immersion are also relational – other players, Strong characters, conflict, strong emotions, character's ambition, important intrigues, Complex moral dilemmas, multidimensional characters. Elements of the game from which participants obtained educational effects related to specific scenes. We even achieved the immersion effect in a board game with role-play elements. Conclusion 1: edu-LARP as a method has a strong effect on increasing the level of empathy with one's role, however, agency and subjectivity in the context of fulfilling one's needs / social change, as well as the issue of accepting violence result from the content of the scenarios and the construction of specific scenarios. Conclusion 2: the most effective type of LARP that facilitates the creation of such conditions is a LARP-chamber that meets the above-mentioned traits where characters are only partially co-created by players. Meta level – how GMs can achieve those effects? ● Styles/methods of GMing should be flexible and react on the group dynamics (triggering people, managing them etc.) and on what we want to achieve (conflict, strong emotions, sense of threat) ● Problem - results of the same LARPs are different depending on styles of GMing and group dynamic, player base ● Adapt pre-workshops to people and LARP – encourage people to build their own objectives – essential role of workshops!! Learning outcomes – few quotes "I can't stop thinking about it", "LARP isn't over for me at all, I'm just talking about it all the time" "Each moment of the game is characterized by strong emotions and such symbolic scenes that when I think about them, there is always a new reflection" "The French Revolution is the perfect scenario for understanding change and radicalization" "I've learned a lot about myself, I'm better with myself", "I realized that I don't have to strive for a balance anymore, because people accept me as I am" "All the moments of aha came ourselves - from within, from our own emotions, body reactions (e.g. my legs were shaking when I gave up my candidacy, I felt abandoned and disappointed only because I was afraid of not being accepted because of who I am) " Learning outcomes – more quotes - "I learnt about classist conflict and felt part of the solution for it, as well as that the ill intentions of part of a society may impact the society more than the good things the mass does." - "I realized that I am more stubborn than I thought I am and that it is easier for me to face something terrible than change my mind and admitting i was wrong." - "I experienced a different way of dealing with problems and scenarios that are given. I learned much more to take responsibility for my actions and not letting someone talk into my life and measure my decisions. Not because someone is higher in hierarchy does mean that they are wiser. I can still take what I need from them and leave what I don't want. Nobody fools with me, when I clearly show my way and will." - "Stepping into the shoes of people that are far away of my way of life gave me a great insight in their struggles and goals in order to understand and "justify", in a way, their actions. Challenging myself in roles and realities that felt alienated to me made me realise about the characteristics that my true self wants to inquire in the future and to cherish the ones that have right now. Lastly, I felt more and more the need of belonging and how important this is in my life and how much I have to protect it with all i got." - "I felt it was interesting to not have a retreat from interaction and being part of a hidden minority was a very interesting experience." - "My relationship to "the group". How to negotiate with others." Learning outcomes – even more quotes - "Can’t think of anything specific but I feel like I developed as a person." - "It is always a very complicated answer to give when it comes to LARPs. I am not sure. I always give a very vague and not very helpful comment but it is true as I see it. I learned about myself." - "I learnt how to be more proactive, take initiative, be brave and resilient." - "I realised how the exchange of opinions can change things." - "I learned to listen more and hopefully to speak out more." - "You start noticing how everybody is capturing and translating each characteristic. For example being ignorant or loud are not perceived the same way by everybody and not acted the same way as well." - "Trying to be someone you are not makes you understand what you really are and what side you want to be on." - "I learned that character's traits can change during the process. Listening different perspectives can broaden the character's view." Results from perspective of de-radicalisation criteria - EMPATHY ● Visible growth of empathy - "I understood how easy it is to be ...", "what prompts people to behave like this can be completely banal", "I already know what it is like to be in constant fear", "my position may change at any moment", "understood in what a privileged position am I " ● Understanding the radicalized attitude - “He thought (am) unconsciously then - my goal will be realized only when THEIR (differently thinking) are not there! I was scared of my thoughts ”,“ I have to steal their water or we won't survive. But I thought as me oh no, I steal their water " ● Separating yourself from the character - understanding others through "own" behavior - "I understood my character", "And HE then thought that ...", ● Noticing the complexity of other people's situations, “It was not that simple - good / bad. Different sides saw it differently " ● Difficulty empathizing with his character - "I don't understand why the news that my parents are androids would make my character hate androids, I don't know how to empathize with it." Reflection on interaction between player and the character - "I drew on the cores of my personality, but altered them slightly, so the base is similar, but outcome is different." - "In reality I don't make it my mission to care about people I barely know. In contrast my character took it upon him to keep the people from his tribe alive and safe as they were his only reminders of home.” - "Oedipus was a person who would stick to his opinion and values even when that would end up bad for him. I did the same thing, punishing myself harshly instead of changing my mind or admitting that I was wrong." - "Herodotus is an elderly man, a journalist, open to otherness and a seeker of justice. If I am not like that, then I would like to be - a seeker of truth.” - "I am a hyper proactive and friendly individual that strongly believes that the only way to achieve things in life is through collaboration with other people. Both the characters were staying in the margin of the society, accepted because of their roles, but never actually taking part in it. Ravael was a priest, a blind believer of faith, really far away from my philosophy. Both characters acted for a sole purpose of self sustaining their life and nothing more. Neither of them opened up to people around them, out of fear of revealing their true self, they just kept some relationships with people just in order to make their plan come true.” - "I used to hide "real me" and pretend to be someone else from people being afraid that they will not accept me as I am during almost all my life. The same as I was doing during LARP." More reflection on interaction between player and the character - "I believe that young generation needs to fight their fights always, as Master Builder does. Nevertheless, I appreciate the experience of the past generations, especially when it is offered lavishly and selflessly. It has a lot to offer to the fight and build on it. I, also, empathise with the opinion of letting go the opinions, which are not useful to the present moment of time and bring useless comparisons on the table. The feeling of the possible anger in the above case expresses me as well. Last but not least, I imagined the character as respectful and tolerant towards other people's opinions. So, I think this matches a lot with me." "Weeell, I understand my character's disappointment about this world, so I find this as a similar point. I think, though, that I am more active towards this (which comes from the fact that I haven't lost all my hope) while my character was more passive (as it has lost hope).” "My character held the current generation in low regard. I am still sceptical about it.” "We were similar in ideas and feeling to make the difference and fight for the future, but I made my character stronger than I am” "The character has passed through a lot of waves in his life. Those difficulties have formed the opinions he has today. I have not had the same life path. Neither I have probably based my opinions only on my past experiences. I am probably more open from the character. What was interesting was that the character gradually became milder and milder throughout the LARP discussion and came closer to me, somehow." Counting codes ● Counting fragments of statements (IDIs and FGIs from 5 LARPs): 1. Emotional connection with your character (192) 2. Understanding previously unknown attitudes and dilemmas (98) 3. Feeling of compassion (81) 4. Reflections on legitimate / illegal violence (75) 5. Reflections on the socio-political system, social justice (74) 6. Feelings of collective identity from outside the "own" social group (71) Results from perspective of de-radicalisation criteria – EMPOWERMENT AND SELF-EFFICACY ● Reflection on morality of the means to achieve the goal: "My character saw no problem in deceiving the clergy, what mattered was the goal", ● Learning agency from my character - "I surprised myself when people followed me." "I didn't know that I could, for example, improvise a lofty speech just like that", "I looked at myself in the mirror, and it wasn't me. It was an activist, a leader of change. And then I thought - it could be me" ● Gaining self-confidence - "It turned out that I can lead people, convince them to my rights, people listen to me!" ● Realizing the ambiguity of the situation by being put in this situation - “I knew people would consider me a traitor. But I had to do it to prevent a revolution, it was about human life. And Robespier in prison would not be hurt - my character thought" Results from perspective of de-radicalisation criteria – EMPOWERMENT AND SELF-EFFICACY ● Reflections on violence as a method of achieving social change: ● “Every time my characters lied, cheated, manipulated, they easily achieved their goal. But when I stepped out of them, I felt guilty every time, especially when I looked at my fellow players. In real life, I will look for solutions that will let people trust me, because it is more important than achieving goals" ● “I used to use such methods once. But in LARP, when I had to talk myself out of the situation again, it was hard for me. I noticed that I am not like that anymore, it gives me discomfort" ● “I noticed that many characters tended to use any means to defend their own kind. But when did they find out that theirs are actually not theirs, or some construct imposed on us - people, androids, our city, and who are migrants? either we get angry and stick to them all the more - that's the Oedipus or Bolt situation or everything collapses and we withdraw - this is Despasina's situation. It is also the moment when nothing makes sense anymore and you can blow up the hall” Results from perspective of de-radicalisation criteria – SENSE OF BELONGING ● Creating an "atmosphere of acceptance" outside of LARP - LARP communities create specific relationships similar to gamer communities ● A sense of collective identity with one's own group - "We quickly developed a group identity, rituals, values, the way of talking about us", "The feeling of community with people outside of <our> group in the game was interesting - we united only in a threatening situation. But there were moments of pure solidarity, of rapprochement between Maykop and Kura Araxes. Why? Because that's how we decided to be” ● ”I do not agree that caring for the common good is caring for our values. What if we are wrong? Like humans or androids? Like Robespierre or monarchists? Does it matter who is right? " Summary – eduLARP can build up immunity for violent radicalisation boosters and raised awareness of the triggers ● Significantly increased empathy, understanding of others, recognition of various situations, ● Self-efficacy and empowerment achieved also through general features of eduLARP, ● Deep learning through eduLARP - not only methodological features are important, but the content pointing to deep dilemmas, the essence of social life, the system, criticising values, etc., ● Critical observation of oneself in one's characters - entering into critical thinking, introspection by separating oneself from one's roles, ● Testing the consequences of your decisions, views opinions in real time, ● Critical analysis of various variants of solutions, ● Doing debriefings in groups supports thinking about others perspective – the risk of biases by dominant players - individual debriefing balances it, ● Building a community of players