Gameful Peacebuilding: A Review of Empirical Studies

Global peacefulness has declined for six consecutive years so far. Alongside traditional peacebuilding efforts, gameful interventions have emerged as tools to promote dialogue, perspective-taking, and engagement with complex conflict dynamics. Yet, empirical evidence regarding their purposes, design and effectiveness remains fragmented, limiting theoretical consolidation and practical advancement. This systematic review of 21 studies provides an overview of the growing field of gameful peacebuilding. Our findings indicate that most interventions are implemented in educational and professional training contexts, primarily aiming to promote knowledge acquisition, attitude change, perspective-taking, and skill development. The field is dominated by digital and simulation-based games, with limited but growing use of participatory and co-design approaches. The review also identifies key gaps in design transparency, participatory practices, and rigorous evaluation. Our future research agenda encourages designers and researchers to conduct longitudinal studies to seek behavioral validation, and also to enhance and report transparent ethical responsibility practices given the sensitivity of issues related to peacebuilding and drive the field of gameful peacebuilding forward.