LARP psychological theories

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Perspective Taking

The perspective taking element in LARP helps increase awareness of the struggles of people who are encountering stigma. It is acknowledged that our brains are hardwired to egocentric anchoring and adjustment (Epley, Keysar, Boven & Gilovich, 2004).

Thus, the role-play game setting, in which players immerse themselves in a character and act it out, is needed to put players into others’ shoes. In other words, players have to consciously take the characters’ perspective, i.e. to understand how a situation appears to the character and how that character will react cognitively and emotionally to the situation (Gehlbach, 2004).

According to Selman’s perspective taking theory, people are able to take the perspective of another person, third party, and understand that third party perspective can be influenced by larger societal values by the age of 15 (Elfers et al., 2008), which means our target group i.e. university students are able to improve in understanding the struggles of people who are encountering stigma.

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Active Learning

Experiential Learning and Situated Learning

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