Shifting travel patterns through narrative gamification: Evidence from a school-based program in Singapore

Encouraging young school children (and their parents) to travel to school more by active modes and less by car is of growing interest to transportation policymakers, especially considering the growing trend of car use in many cities today. In this study, gamification was employed as a behavioral intervention to promote "car-free" travel among students of 3 elementary schools in Singapore, through a 3-week program called the OneEarth Challenge. In this intervention, students earned points for going "car-free" to school, and the activity was made fun, engaging, and social, through inter-team competitions. Beyond individual-focused rewards typically employed for such programs, students also collectively worked towards team and school goals. During the program, there was an average 28.5 percentage-point increase in "car-free" travel across all schools, and this increase largely persisted at least up to 8 weeks after the Challenge. We also found that the inclusion of a fictional game narrative was associated with increased intrinsic motivation for "car-free" behavior which in turn led to greater persistence in behavior change. The policy implications and generalizability of these results are discussed.