This article contributes to the development of virtual agents that act as non-player characters (NPCs) that offer different ethical viewpoints to assist the player to learn about ethical decision-making. To explore this, we developed a serious game designed to train users to consider five relevant ethical principles (Autonomy, Justice, Beneficence, Non-maleficence, and Explicability) when making cybersecurity decisions. After receiving interactive training in the game about these five ethical principles, the player participates in two cybersecurity scenarios involving three intelligent agents who play the role of virtual office employees. Each virtual agent has been allocated a different combination of personality and ethical principle priorities to present different viewpoints through their dialogues with the player. These dialogues are designed to represent each agent’s personality (using the Big-5 personality model of Openness, Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness) and the ethical principles that they consider to be of high or low importance. The scenarios conclude with the player making a choice, followed by a reflection statement to help them review their choice. Through comparison of pre- and post-game responses to other cyber-ethical scenarios, our initial analysis with firstyear cybersecurity students shows that players’ understanding of ethical principles in cybersecurity improved after playing our game.
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