Development and Validation of Entertainment-Education Videos Addressing Social Bias Toward Visible Facial Differences: Relevance for Health and Dental Education

Visible facial differences can lead to negative stereotyping, social exclusion, and reduced wellbeing. Although educational interventions targeting the general population are needed to disconfirm these biases, few tools have been developed to present realistic and relatable portrayals of individuals with facial differences. Entertainment-Education (E-E) offers a promising strategy to deliver prosocial messages by embedding them within engaging narratives.This study describes the development and design validation of three E-E videos that aim to counter social bias towards individuals with visible facial differences and explores their potential relevance for use in broader educational settings, including dental education.Using a modified ADDIE approach, three narratives were scripted to disconfirm stereotypes related to social competence, intellectual competence, and psychological adjustment. Neutral composite faces were generated using WebMorph and artistically modified to depict realistic loss of a facial part. Voice recordings and images were integrated using D-ID’s Creative Reality™ AI platform to produce lifelike digital humans. Eight instructional designers evaluated the videos’ design quality, storyline appeal, character involvement, and persuasive integration using a questionnaire adapted from the PEMAT tool, supplemented by qualitative field notes.Participants evaluated the videos positively across all four E-E domains, highlighting their high production quality, relatable characters, clear narratives, and subtle integration of the prosocial message. Minor concerns included occasional background distractions.The validated videos represent a scalable and engaging approach to challenging social stereotypes about facial differences. Although developed for the general public, their focus on empathy and attitudinal awareness suggests potential applicability as supplementary material in educational contexts, including health and dental training.