Altruism in Game ON

Game ON is a children’s book created to encourage resilience in our young ones.

Learn about altruism in Game ON below

Altruism is linked to the notion of empathy and occurs when a person recognises the distress of others with the notion of comforting that person. In Game ON, Alex lacks this behavioural trait, as demonstrated by his ability to completely ignore the distress he has caused his friends. When Alex loses his temper and the ball goes up in flames, Reina bursts into tears. Instead of feeling remorse for this situation, Alex is still motivated by his needs (lacking self- and social awareness) and his highly fuelled emotions. It is not until the story ends that Alex recognises his behaviour toward his friends was inappropriate and apologises for blaming, yelling and teasing. He also takes responsibility for the fact that his poor temperament contributed to Reina’s distress. In this story, some of the children through the pilot remarked that sometimes they felt like Reina when people around them were being naughty. This presents an opportunity for teachers to use empathy and altruism to build awareness for those children who use aggression to resolve their problems and how this may affect their peers.