Prosocial Design in Trust and Safety

TL;DR

This paper introduces Prosocial Design as a platform approach that influences behavior towards healthier interactions, aiming to reduce harmful conduct and misinformation through design principles.

Contribution

It reviews research demonstrating how Prosocial Design can effectively promote prosocial behavior and support Trust and Safety in platform environments.

Findings

Prosocial Design can reduce rule-breaking behavior.

It helps stem the spread of harmful misinformation.

Research on Prosocial Design is still limited but promising.

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of Prosocial Design, an approach to platform design and governance that recognizes design choices influence behavior and that those choices can or should be made toward supporting healthy interactions and other prosocial outcomes. The authors discuss several core principles of Prosocial Design and its relationship to Trust and Safety and other related fields. As a primary contribution, the chapter reviews relevant research to demonstrate how Prosocial Design can be an effective approach to reducing rule-breaking and other harmful behavior and how it can help to stem the spread of harmful misinformation. Prosocial Design is a nascent and evolving field and research is still limited. The authors hope this chapter will not only inspire more research and the adoption of a prosocial design approach, but that it will also provoke discussion about the principles of Prosocial Design and its potential to support Trust and Safety.