PRESIDENT FOR A DAY

Abstract

Distrust in the American government is a persistent problem for democracy, and civic education is thought to be the best hope for its mitigation. Scholars have found that new forms of playful, digital civic education can encourage youth civic engagement, and video game theory suggests that the properties of games make them well suited to the problem at hand. This study experimentally tests whether a custom-designed video game simulating the budgetary process can have an effect on political trust, particularly stealth democracy attitudes. Youth who played the game showed a lower level of stealth democracy attitudes than those who did not, but there was no difference in more general trust beliefs. This suggests that games could play a part in youth engagement efforts, but that such efforts are most effective when they are narrowly targeted.

Keywords:

• civic education
• video games
• political trust
• stealth democracy
• new media

Acknowledgements

This work is based on his Master's thesis at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He would like to thank Makana Chock and Danny Hayes for their comments on a previous version of this paper, and Greg Milner for his assistance in constructing the game instrument.