A research agenda for encouraging prosocial behaviour on social media

Timothy Dörr (), Trisha Nagpal (), Duncan Watts () and Chris Bail ()
Additional contact information
Timothy Dörr: University of Pennsylvania
Trisha Nagpal: University of Pennsylvania
Duncan Watts: University of Pennsylvania
Chris Bail: Duke University

Nature Human Behaviour, 2025, vol. 9, issue 3, 441-449

Abstract: Abstract Many studies examine antisocial behaviours on social media—such as sharing misinformation or producing hate speech—but far fewer examine how platforms can incentivize more prosocial behaviour. We identify several ways in which social media platforms currently enable such behaviour, including (1) connecting new communities, (2) enabling collective problem-solving and (3) expanding the boundaries of philanthropy. However, we also discuss how some of the factors that enable prosocial behaviour can also empower malicious actors—as well as the challenge of creating prosocial behaviour that is sustainable and impactful offline. We then propose a research agenda to help scholars, policymakers and corporate leaders to identify the causal factors that shape prosocial behaviour on social media. This agenda focuses on (1) the size and shape of social networks, (2) platform affordances, (3) social norms and (4) how prosocial behaviour can be embedded within existing and future business models of social media.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02102-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nathum:v:9:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1038_s41562-025-02102-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nathumbehav/

DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02102-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Human Behaviour is currently edited by Stavroula Kousta

More articles in Nature Human Behaviour from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().