A Review of Social Deduction Games as Therapeutic and Pedagogical Tools

<p>In this work, we review the literature regarding “social deduction games” (“SDGs”) with a specific interest in determining if this genre of board game has positive therapeutic and pedagogical outcomes. SDGs are predominantly analogue board games where the main form of play is predicated on social interaction (including lying, bluffing, misdirecting, interrogating and deducing). In these games, players are assigned roles and teams that are not known to all players of the game. Players are encouraged to discover the in-game roles of other players through social interaction, information sharing and social mapping to win. Through these game-mediated social interactions and the game elements of SDGs, it is possible that some form of therapy and learning may occur. In this review, we map the current SDG literature, describe commercial SDGs and their therapeutic and educational effects. We note that several articles attest that SDGs work as effective scaffolding for teaching of social skills and that players tend to form strong social bonds and experience reduced anxiety in social settings. We posit that SDGs are effective therapeutic and pedagogical tools.</p>