Does role play manipulate students? Persuasive effects of role play on students' attitude and behavior regarding a socioscientific issue

Socioscientific issues (SSIs) can provide a context to address societal decision-making processes in school. In recent years, studies have demonstrated that one effective way to deal with these topics is through role play. However, role plays may induce an unreflected attitude change based on the roles the participants take on, which raises ethical concerns about indoctrination. To explain this change of attitude, we applied the Transportation-Imagery Model. We asked if transportation into a role play would bring about a change of attitude and behavior. Furthermore, we investigated whether the perspective of the prepared or performed characters affected transportation and the direction of an attitude change. The research was conducted in Germany with a sample of 256 secondary-school students (M-age = 16.9 years, SDage = 1.5, 68% female). We found that transportation affected neither attitude change nor behavior. There was also no effect of the prepared or performed characters' perspective on transportation or attitude change. This suggests that role play does not constitute a form of manipulation and can be used as a learning method for SSIs without reservation.