Empathy Up

Nowadays, Syrian refugees are facing major challenges to mingle with the social life of German society. The purpose of this on-going study is to create support and increase empathy of German youths towards Syrian refugees with the developed concept called "Empathy- Up" (EMP-UP). The concept aims at levelling the playing field for them through a mobile game. The research done has shown two main critical problems faced by refugees (Syrian): (1) they do not get in contact with locals (Germans), and (2) they feel that Germans do not want to interact with them or accept them in their society. The study shows that when combining a geo-location based mobile game that addresses cultural differences within the game scenario, it's more likely to connect players emotionally with these different cultures. This resulted in minimizing prejudices by locals, increasing their willingness to get to know refugees, and making the first contact with a refugee simpler and more positive. The empathy is created during the game while players are going through the story scenario and when the game ends, both players (locals and refugees) surprisingly meet face-to-face in reality.