Everyone knows that if there's a group of people most accurately representative of the UK general public, it's the GTA Online player base. Of course, a video game series that prides itself on being distinctly, unapologetically American is precisely where, oh, I don't know, a department of the UK government would turn to for data on the behaviors of its citizenry. According to The Telegraph (paywalled), that's precisely what's been happening since late 2024, when the Department for Education (DfE) initiated a taxpayer funded program in which employees are paid to play GTA Online with random people on the internet to get into their heads.
The experiment, conducted by a small unit of the DfE called Policy Lab, involves government employees "[spending] time with participants in video games they played regularly" and "[experiencing] the world" with them by "observing their in-game interactions." One of the reported goals of the project is to learn "impactful insights about people's lived experience" while researchers play the game in a curated, "emotionally safe place."
