“Like Hearing From Them in the Past”: The Cognitive-Affective Model of Historical Empathy in Videogame Play

Historical empathy is a multidimensional construct that involves both the cognitive recognition of the perspectives of others as well as affective engagement with the lived experiences of people in the past. Actively engaging learners with diverse historical perspectives in activities like debate, writing, and role play has been shown to be more effective than traditional instruction in the promotion of historical empathy, but less is known about the effectiveness of videogames in this regard. This case study article examines how historical empathy manifested during play of the videogame Valiant Hearts. The results indicate that certain types of game play may promote particular dimensions of historical empathy better than others, and that some dimensions tend to arise spontaneously while others require (or even resist) prompting.