What if Design Fiction changes the Active Coping of Students ? Anlysis of Design Fiction's Effects through Self Efficacy, Social Capital and Risk Perception

To help students to face Grand Challenges our research partner HEP Education decided to develop a specific module of Design Fiction. We propose them to analyse, through the administration of a unique questionnaire before and after the module of design fiction, the factors that lead their 500 students to imagine and react on human rights. The administered questionnaire focuses on the personal (self-confidence) and interpersonal (social capital) determinants leading students to react) to the futures proposed to them. In line with the protection motivation theory (PMT) of Maddux and Roger (1983), these reactions are analysed in terms of coping, perception of risk and self-efficacy. We ask the following research question: To what extent can design fiction change the students' active coping? Our paper contributes to the literature in two ways, by giving a better understanding of factors affecting student's reaction towards the future, and by giving a reflexive approach of the design fiction module to apprehend grand challenges.