What is "Prosocial Design"?

While there's no one definition, PDN defines Prosocial Design as "Design patterns, features and processes which foster healthy interactions between individuals in digital spaces and which create the conditions for those interactions to thrive by ensuring individuals' safety, wellbeing and dignity."
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• ‍Blueprint on Prosocial Tech Design Governance (Council on Tech and Social Cohesion with University of Notre Dame and Toda Peace Institute, May 2025) This systems-level Blueprint by Dr. Lisa Schirch responds to the escalating societal harms fueled by digital platforms—from polarization and mental health crises to manipulation and erosion of privacy. It lays out nine actionable recommendations across three sections to guide governments, civil society, researchers, and industry in shaping platforms through design—not just content moderation. The Blueprint also introduces five tiers of prosocial design to align market forces, research access, and policy around safer, more cohesive digital spaces.
• ‘Mapping Tech Design Regulation in the Global South’, authored by technology policy analyst Devika Malik, explores the appetite for adoption of prosocial tech design approaches to regulation in eight countries in the Global South: India, Brazil, Kenya, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The research explores how a diverse set of incentives across these countries influences the integration of upstream product and design considerations in digital regulation. It also highlights the state of regulation and identifies both opportunities and barriers to advancing accountability in digital platforms through design-focused interventions.
• Outcomes and recommendations from an October 2024 workshop co-hosted by the European University Institute in Florence with the Council on Tech and Social Cohesion captured in this Policy Brief: Advancing Prosocial Tech Design and shaping the EU platform design governance. The report authors recommend greater transparency by Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) as well as moving beyond a ‘systemic risks’ approach towards a ‘systemic opportunities’ approach which could incentivize the uptake of prosocial tech design to strengthen social cohesion.
• ‘Prevention by Design: A Roadmap for Tackling TFGBV at the Source,’ advocates for a shift toward proactive, design-focused approaches that aim to intercept the harm before it reaches its target. By prioritizing changes to product design which strengthen default safety and user empowerment, the report provides a roadmap for tech companies, policymakers, and civil society to reduce tech-facilitated gender-based violence and create a safer digital environment for all users. Produced by the Council on Tech and Social Cohesion in partnership with the Integrity Institute and Search for Common Ground.
• Jonathan Stray and Gillian Hadfield wrote A Unique Experiment That Could Make Social Media Better explaining how  multiple universities, nonprofit and advocacy organizations, together with  Meta, are experimenting and learning about changes to Facebook’s feed ranking.
• Julia Kamin of Civic Health Project wrote The Personal Norms Signal in which she explains what it may look like for platforms to give individual users the tools to be their own norm-signalers (and enforcers).
• Learn how the Neely Indices are designing ad codifying ‘pro-social’ metrics to measure the impact of tech on polarizations and social cohesion, specifically social media and artificial intelligence.
• The Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence (CHAI) is leading a prosocial ranking algorithm challenge, in which winning algorithm will be tested for four months using a browser extension that can re-order, add, or remove content on Facebook, X, and Reddit, and evaluated in a pre-registered, controlled experiment with consenting participants.

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Libraries:

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• PDN's library of evidence-based prosocial interventions
• Other prosocial design pattern libraries, guides and resources
• Chapter on Prosocial Design in Trust & Safety

Recaps of recent Pro-Socials:

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• In-time Feedback with Manoel Horta Ribeiro
• Trans-inclusive Design with Erin White
• "Boosting" Prosocial Behavior with Philipp Lorenz-Spreen and David Grüning
• Middleware & Prosocial Design with Richard Reisman
• Other past Pro-Socials