Cooperative Board Games Built Different Empathy In The Lab

The Oasis Health Journal · Submitted August 12, 2026 · 6:31 PM EDT

By Ray 'Sleeves' Okafor · Edited by Mona Trell

Listen. I been watching people fail to cooperate for twenty-two years. Same table, same game, same argument about who supposed to do what. And then once in a while you get a group that just WORKS, and it ain't about the game, it's about the fact that everybody got a different job and they all needed.

Turns out there's research on that now. Three separate studies, three completely different populations, same basic finding: when you put people in structured situations where they got asymmetric roles and they gotta work together, empathy goes up. Not the kind where you feel bad for somebody. The kind where you actually DO something.

And I'm gonna tell you right now, that second kind is the one that matter.

What The Research Actually Measured (And What It Didn't)

First study: eighty older adults, average age seventy-two, playing sports with coaches who let them set they own goals. Not exactly cooperative board games for groups, but it's the same engine. You in a thing, your role matter, somebody else role matter different, and the whole thing only work if y'all figure it out together.

They measured autonomy, competence, confidence, health management, mental health. What they found: when people allowed to engage on they own terms, with support that respect what THEY trying to accomplish, the whole experience become part of they identity. Harmonious passion, they called it. Intrinsic motivation.

That's just a fancy way of saying folk showed up because they wanted to, not because somebody made 'em.

Second study: fifty-seven fourth graders in Turkey. Experimental group read inclusive children's literature, stories about kids with disabilities, then did creative drama based on them stories. Eight weeks, structured sessions. Control group did regular classroom work.

They used something called the Empathic Tendency Scale. Measures three kinds: cognitive empathy, that's understanding what somebody thinking. Emotional empathy, that's feeling it WITH them. And behavioral empathy.

That last one the important one. That's actually helping.

After eight weeks, experimental group scored significantly higher across all three. Cognitive empathy went up moderate. Emotional and behavioral empathy went up LARGE. The researchers said the drama part, the acting it out with different roles and teamwork, that's what turned understanding into action.

You read about it, you learn it. You ACT it out, you become it.

Medical Residents Played D&D On Zoom And It Actually Worked

Third study, and this the one that made me laugh: eleven psychiatry residents during the pandemic. They ran role playing games on video calls. Three hours a week for four months. Different characters, different abilities, gotta cooperate or the whole party die.

They didn't just measure empathy, they asked the residents straight up what happened. The answers: better group dynamics, better communication, better cooperation, better assertiveness, better empathy, better mental health, better quality of life.

Now I'm gonna be real with you. That mental health improvement might've just been getting OUT of the hospital for three hours. But the empathy part, the communication part, the learning to work with people who got completely different skills than you? That tracked across all three studies.

Different populations. Different activities. Same finding.

When you in a structured thing where your job different from my job and we both needed, we get better at seeing it from the other side. We get better at DOING something about it.

Why Asymmetric Roles In Cooperative Board Games Hit Different Than Just 'Playing Together'

Here's what folk miss. It ain't just about cooperation. Plenty of cooperative tabletop games out there where everybody doing the same thing at the same time. Roll dice, draw cards, move your piece. That's cooperative, sure.

But asymmetric games where players have different roles? That's a whole other engine. You can't just do your thing and hope it work out. You gotta KNOW what I'm trying to do, and I gotta know what you trying to do, and we gotta coordinate or we both lose.

You the healer, I'm the tank. You got the clue cards, I got the map. You managing resources, I'm managing time. You playing the long game, I'm playing the short one.

And none of it work unless we talk.

The fourth graders in that drama study, they didn't just read about a kid in a wheelchair, they PLAYED that kid. Then they played the friend. Then they played the teacher. Every role gave 'em a different angle on the same situation. By the end of eight weeks they weren't just understanding it cognitively, they were acting on it behaviorally.

That's the gap most empathy training never cross. Plenty of people understand a problem. Fewer people DO something.

What This Don't Mean (And Why I'm Telling You)

None of these studies say go buy a party game with different player abilities and fix your whole family by Thursday. That ain't what the research show.

What it show is: structured, repeated, facilitated asymmetric cooperation in a low-stakes environment can produce measurable improvements in empathy, communication, and prosocial behavior. The fourth graders had a teacher running the sessions. The medical residents had a facilitator. The older athletes had coaches who actively supported they autonomy.

It wasn't just 'we played cooperative board games and everybody nicer now.' It was STRUCTURED. It was REPEATED. Somebody was paying attention.

Also, every one of these studies small. Fifty-seven kids. Eleven residents. Eighty older adults. None of them randomized controlled trials with hundreds of people and a year of follow-up. They all qualitative or quasi-experimental, which mean they telling you what happened, not proving it happen every time.

And the medical residents study? They said it themselves: we need pre- and post-intervention assessments. They just asked people how they felt. That ain't nothing, but it ain't the same as measuring a change.

But here's what I know from watching it for two decades: when people sit down at a table and they all got a different job and they all NEEDED, something shift. They start asking questions. They start listening to the answer. They start seeing the thing from the other side.

And that, right there, that's how games improve communication skills. Not magic. Structure.

You want empathy, you gotta practice it. And asymmetric cooperation the practice.

This article is education and reporting on published research. It is not medical advice, and nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Talk to your own clinician about your own situation.

Sources

1. Being Able to Engage in Sports on One's Own Terms: Positive Development in Sport for Older Adults, International journal of environmental research and public health (2026).
2. Operationalizing inclusion through drama: the effects of inclusive children's literature on empathic tendencies, Frontiers in psychology (2026).
3. Critical skills: qualitative content analysis of medical residents in social skills training with RPGs, Frontiers in psychology (2026).