La gamificación como tecnología persuasivabalance ético de un fenómeno pluridisciplinar y propuesta de autorregulación

Abstract

Sectoral studies on gamification and its ethical dimension have been taking place in recent years. However, these sectoral studies about gamification are far from developing a comprehensive approach to this persuasive phenomenon, which takes into account the rhetorical aspects as an explanatory instance of it, in such a way that it helps to understand its motivational and ethical implications. Trying to respond to this gap is one of the pillars of this academic work. Thus, our intention has been to enter fully into a study that, to date, has received fragmented and sectoral attention from the specialized literature. In this sense, we consider pertinent and justified the need to carry out studies that -with a global or integral character- address the ethical aspects of gamification. In this way, we want to reunite and integrate what appears incipient and fragmentary in the specialized literature, which addresses the study of the ethical dimension of gamification from the perspective of specific strategic sectors, such as health and well-being, marketing , human resources management or education. And what are the reasons for the purpose of this doctoral thesis? One of them is because the role of gamification, although it is increasing, both in the field of professions and in that of leisure and free time, lacks a critical approach that, even counting on the benefits that could be derived for the various spheres of reality, can fully resolve those issues that connect with a deeply humanistic approach to this technological and persuasive phenomenon. We want to take the guiding thread of our research on gamification from the contributions of Rhetoric, Theory of motivations and applied Ethics to the integral understanding of the phenomenon. With respect to the latter, the rise that they have led since their birth in the 70s of the 20th century -by virtue of the emergence of bioethical reflection-, as well as the development experienced by ethics in organizations a decade later (Cortina, 1994), together with the advances led by computational ethics or computer ethics -in the 80s of the 20th century-, constitute milestones that deserve to be investigated. From this explosion will arise reflections -both in the academic world and in the professional field- that will be questioned about the true contribution of ethics in various professional sectors, of which we are interested in persuasive technology in general and in gamification in particular. Another question is whether the ethical scope of the existing specialized literature has been able to reach a sufficient entity with enough depth as far as gamification is concerned. And we affirm this because we live in an era of paradoxes, where the frequent invocation of ethics -in the personal, professional and/or corporate sphere- is not always accompanied by its consequent application to the mentioned sectors. The existing terminological confusion around our object of study leads us to delve into some phenomena that contribute to its ambiguity, such as traditional games, digital games or serious games. While the developments and implementations of gamification do not stop, as well as the publication of scientific articles with a growing interest in this matter, the same does not happen in relation to the moral concerns of professionals or academia (Weiss, 2019). As we have been remarking, the ethical implications of gamification are usually addressed from specific areas or with mentions about the concern for the privacy of users of gamified systems (Mavroeidi et al., 2019) rather than in a global or comprehensive way. Thus, the most critical positions with this phenomenon "express their concern about the ethical and social responsibility problems underlying the intentionality and the effects of certain questionable uses of gamification directed at students, consumers or employees" (Weiss, 2019, p. 6905), but not with respect to society as a whole. Particularly, the fact that gamification is used to promote certain user behaviors leads us to ask ourselves if gamification is an activity with an ethical dimension and, if so, what elements, theories and authors can help us clarify this question. In this research we begin by presenting new technologies and playful persuasion as a current framework for gamification. From the beginning, technology and neutrality do not go hand in hand, much less when we talk about persuasive technologies, since technological artifacts are increasingly ubiquitous in our lives and are manifestly conditioned by their design, as well as by the objectives and intentions of their creators. Design decisions are made in search of the achievement of specific results or goals; and, for this reason, deliberation about technological design and about the ethical frameworks that allow designing persuasive technologies -such as gamification initiatives- becomes very necessary. A priori it could be argued that when the intention of the designer towards the end user is good, we are dealing with a gamification project that is consistent with ethics. But is this really that simple? Do good intentions prevent harmful consequences? How can the degree of responsibility of the moral agents involved in the gamification processes be determined and foster a more ethical persuasion? Is it possible to regulate what happens halfway between the real world and cyberspace? These issues contemplate the entity of the topic to be discussed, that of the search for some keys and foundations for a gamification that persuades in a respectful way with ethics. Our objective is to clarify the state of the question and deepen into the specialized literature regarding the ethical dimension of gamification, in order to provide a more complete vision of the study problem as an added value of this work. Taking into account all these determining factors, we explore two additional areas of knowledge in our work, in addition to Ethics: Rhetoric and Theory of motivations applied to games and gamification, to finally, and after the research carried out, contribute with a self regulation proposal with a double objective: literacy and informative on the one hand -in reference to users of gamified products who are unaware of this technology and its persuasive purpose- but also moralizing and professionalizing on the other hand, aimed at organizations and creators of gamified systems who should aspire to competence and ethical excellence. Currently, the union of game elements, persuasion and digital technology results in gamification, frequently used to generate habits and modify behaviors. We have to consider that, if technology cannot be neutral (Sanmartín, 1990; Bellver, 2017), but is always persuasive, digital technology is much more so and recreational or playful technologies are even more so, since they are perceived as harmless - with the purpose of favoring A mere entertainment - although in reality they end up predisposing us to be convinced, thanks to the optimal state of mind they promote. Therefore, in this research we ask ourselves: what is the real purpose of gamification? Is it motivational? Looking for profit maximization? Is a persuasive or manipulative purpose? Is it social or ideological control? Gamification is being enthusiastically embraced, but with limited and partial ethical support. Given the generally voluntary control to which we submit through new technologies (Han, 2012) because they are comfortable, satisfactory, inmmediate and fun, it will be convenient to reflect on what is happening and -for this reason- it is precisely philosophy that can help us to better understand our environment and to open spaces for critical thinking.