PhD Research
I am examining the impact of commercial video games on players’ connection to nature, as well as their support for conservation efforts. Video games are played by over 3 billion people worldwide, and have therefore been considered a potentially valuable mode of outreach for improving conservation support. Yet current literature on this topic is scarce and mostly speculative. Given the urgent need to reconnect humans with nature in an increasingly urbanised world, thorough evaluation of their potential to inspire support for species protection is a promising territory for exploration.
My PhD is funded by EPSRC, and supervised by Dr. Diogo Veríssimo and Dr. Paul Johnson at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU).
Systematic Map
My first chapter is a systematic map on the use of commercial video games to engage players with conservation. Please find the protocol below:
Blake, K., Arbieu, U., Castelló y Tickell, S., Kubo, T., Lai, S., Mameno, K., Marchini, S., Petros, C., Rodríguez-Sánchez, C., Sequeira, V., Tan, C., Zhou, K., & Veríssimo, D. (preprint). How Commercial Video Games Could Engage Players with Biodiversity Conservation: A Systematic Map Protocol. SocArXiv. doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/gshdp
Impact of Games for Conservation Outreach
My second chapter is more experimental. Compared to non-interactive media, I will explore how video games influence players’ emotions, knowledge, concern, self-efficacy, and donation behaviours related to conservation efforts over time.
Designing Games for Conservation Outreach
My third chapter will involve interviewing developers of video games featuring messages about protecting the natural world. The goal is to elucidate the decisions and motivations behind these products.
Other Projects
Blake, K., Tubb, K., & Veríssimo, D. (2025). Games for Gaia: Leveraging Gaming Interventions for Biodiversity Conservation. [accepted]. Conservation & Society.
Veríssimo, D., Blake, K., Espelosin, D., ... Thomas-Walters, L. (2024). Changing human behavior to conserve biodiversity. Annual Review of Environment and Resources. doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-111522-103028
Blake, K., Anderson, S., Gleave, A., & Veríssimo, D. (2023). Impact on species' online attention when named after celebrities. Conservation Biology. doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14184
Featured in Anthropocene magazine, The Sunday Post, and Business Insider.
Please also see a poster version of our work, presented at the International Congress for Conservation Biology 2023 (ICCB23).
Blake, K., Kubo, T., & Veríssimo, D. (2023). Measuring the effectiveness of value-framing and message valence on audience engagement across countries. Global Environmental Psychology. doi.org/10.5964/gep.11181
Spicer, S.G., Mitchell, C.J., Wills, A.J., Blake, K.L. & Jones, P.M. (2022). Theory protection: Do humans protect existing associative links?. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 48(1), 1-16. doi.org/10.1037/xan0000314