Prosociality fosters trust, cooperation, and a sense of belonging — all things that contribute to digital thriving.
- In game design, prosocial behavior refers to actions that benefit others, intentionally or unintentionally.
- Prosocial behavior is what fuels healthy, lasting communities and makes successful teams work.
- The success of multiplayer games and their communities depends on players exhibiting prosocial behavior.
What prosociality is
Prosociality is generally defined as actions that are intended to benefit others. These actions can take many forms, such as:
- Assisting
- Cooperating
- Following rules
- Gifting
- Shaking hands after a game
- Sharing
- Volunteering
- See Prosocial Behaviors | Checklist for even more!
Almost universally, prosocial behavior is defined as something a person does intentionally or altruistically. However, in game design we needn’t be so limiting.
Through design, game developers have a heavy influence on what players do. We literally define tasks, goals, and the environments that shape them. Actions driven by habits, a need to achieve positive social outcomes, or subtle contextual affordances, all contribute to prosociality. This is important for designers, who for the most part don’t have access to player intent beyond interpreting their behaviors. Conscious or not, the outcome we want is an increase in prosocial behaviors.
Therefore, we propose that for game development prosocial behavior is defined as actions that benefit others, intentionally or unintentionally.
What does prosocial behavior mean to society?
Society would not exist without prosocial behavior. Furthermore, many of the most significant social advancements throughout history have been driven by individuals and groups acting prosocially (Humankind by Rutger Brennan talks about this from an evolutionary perspective).
We can see aspects of this echoed in some of the more recent social movements mediated by social media, and how these movements or world events propagate through our gaming spaces. This can be scary for companies / community managers who are, for instance, suddenly faced with players bringing activism to the table — not what many developers signed up to deal with!
Though game companies don’t exist to improve societies, by fostering communities driven by prosocial behavior, they can help make societies a bit better.
What prosociality isn’t (common misconceptions)
Prosociality is not a bribe
In recent years, many developers have begun to recognize that:
- Punitive measures aren’t enough to foster thriving communities.
- The design of a game can create undesirable behaviors.
- Proactive attention to prosocial behavior in design can create better conditions for players.
However, there is a common misconception that players must be given extrinsic rewards in order to be prosocial. In other words, there is a belief that players won’t be prosocial unless they’re bribed to be. This is not true.
While extrinsic rewards can encourage prosocial behavior to some extent (and some players respond particularly well to them), prosociality is something that already exists in games without the need to bribe anyone. Anytime one player helps another or celebrates something great a teammate did, you’re seeing prosocial actions.
Consider applying the principle of rewarding before rewards:
- Make prosocial actions satisfying and meaningful to do on their own (see TAGG Method for Prosocial “Loops”).
- Reserve extrinsic rewards for achieving longer term goals.
- Consider player archetypes, especially those who generally don’t have healthy intrinsic motivations, when creating extrinsic rewards.
- Look for ways to combine selfish intent with prosocial intent, which will generate greater social rewards.
Prosociality is not about making things easy or “kumbaya”
Another common misconception is that designing for prosocial behavior means developers must reduce a game’s difficulty. For the most part, this is untrue. Difficult challenges can actually foster prosocial behavior, and proactive attention to prosociality can improve the quality of teamwork — thereby making difficult challenges more enjoyable for players.
Prosociality is also not about making everyone get along in a naive, unrealistic way. In reality, if your game is a team game, it will only work well when teams work well. By ignoring the behaviors that make teams successful, you reduce the chances your game itself will be successful. Prosociality is key to your game’s success, not “kumbaya.” Ignoring prosociality is a big risk.
Prosociality is not civility
Civility can be thought of as a social code that fosters social well-being and prosocial behavior in various contexts (personal, public, and professional). It is a deeply problematic term, however, and should be used with care. Some uses of civility can be used to demand “polite” behavior and assume a shared set of understandings between two parties involved in a particular interaction.
But who determines those shared values, or how power dynamics (or imbalances) are taken into effect?
For example, it can be harmful to ask a person with a marginalized identity to be “civil” to someone in a position of privilege. Thus, civility really points us toward equality rather than equity.
By proactively designing for prosocial behavior, you’re more likely to see politeness and respect — characteristics of civility.
What does prosociality mean to developers?
The success of multiplayer games — especially team games — depends on players exhibiting prosocial behavior. No matter the reason, whenever players help one another in game:
- Each individual player will benefit.
- The community is more likely to thrive.
- The business will see positive improvements to engagement and brand reputation.
Benefits to developers include:
- More rewarding games — Prosocial actions foster trust, cooperation, and a sense of belonging. When individuals act in ways that benefit others, it creates a ripple effect, inspiring others to do the same. This creates a positive feedback loop that strengthens social bonds and makes communities more resilient. Seek to create win-win situations for players, and you’ll make your game more personally and socially satisfying.
- Greater retention and monetization — Prosocial behavior increases the likelihood that players will come, play, stay, and pay, and they’ll bring other people with them (see Pro Tips to Make Social Simpler).
- Stronger communities — Games that consistently generate positive social experiences cultivate stronger communities. Systems that produce prosocial behavior help make stronger, more resilient communities possible.
- Reduced conflict — When people are more inclined to consider the needs of others, it can help to prevent conflicts and promote peaceful resolutions. Prosociality encourages compassion and understanding, making it easier to bridge divides and find common ground, and generally assume better of one another.
- Happier players — Engaging in prosocial behavior has been linked to increased happiness, improved mental health, and a greater sense of purpose. Helping others can boost self-esteem, reduce stress, and provide a feeling of connection.
What does good look like?
In order to gauge success, consider the following success and warning signs of prosociality:
| Success signs | Warning signs | |
| Individual | Listening to feedback Caregiving (helping, sharing, comforting, gifting, including, welcoming, appreciating, educating) Cooperating Reciprocating Benevolence (altruism, other-oriented behavior in general) Sportsmanship Self-reflection Protecting others, including protection from bad actors Members feel they are sought after | Inattentive listening or ignoring feedback Blaming Insulting Poor verbal comms Criticizing more than praising Low engagement or evidence of willingness to engage Low frustration tolerance Trying to annoy other players Micromanaging others |
| Group | Stability and diversity of membership Focus on accomplishing a positive outcome Open communication Fair treatment by group leaders Accepting new members and encouraging them to interact and participate Effectively conveying social norms between members Sense of cohesion and shared identity Members reflect the good behavior of model players | Disposable playmates Cooperating toward a harmful outcome Low interaction count Abuse of power (e.g., leaders who treat team members unfairly) Excluding, ignoring, and / or being antisocial (e.g., dismissing new players as “noobs”) Unclear social norms Intragroup conflict Defiance to any concept of role models and good behavior |
| Community | People connecting to others who are different than themselves across groups Community facilitates possibilities (treats problems as things to solve on the way to a better future) Mastery-focused climate Fair play in games and respect among spectators High percentage of prosocial interactions and language Stability and diversity of membership Positive perceptions of the community Welcoming attitude towards new members no matter their background High number of persistent groups oriented around prosocial activities High number of secondary relationships Emergent codes of conduct / norms that reflect healthy values Sense of cohesion and shared identity Evidence of players building trusted relationships | Low connectivity in the social graph (people are sticking to themselves) Overall obsession with current problems in the community Ego-centric climate Cheating in games and disrespect among spectators High percentage of problematic interactions or antisocial language Instability of membership and resistance to anyone who isn’t “like us” “Toxic” community perception Suspicion towards anyone who seems “different” Low number of persistent groups oriented around prosocial activities Few community members with consistent interactions beyond those they consider friends (primary relationships) Ubiquitous unhealthy social norms or top-down attempts at forcing social norms Lack of shared identity and overall community interaction Overall distrust between members |
Now what?
Continue learning about prosociality with these articles!
- Chapters Method for Prosocial Design in Session-Based Multiplayer Games
- TAGG Method for Prosocial “Loops”
- 25 Examples of Prosocial Behavior in Games
- RPM Method for Social Satisfaction
- Social Rewards and Other Big Ideas Behind the RPM Method
- Fueling Teamwork by Design
References
- Adkins, P. et al. (2019). Prosocial: Using Evolutionary Science to Build Productive, Equitable, and Collaborative Groups.
- Carlo, G. & Randall, B. A. (2002). The development of a measure of prosocial behaviors for late adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
- Cook, D. et al. (2022). Kind Games: Designing for Prosocial Multiplayer. Polaris Game Design Conference.
- Dunfield, K. (2014). A construct divided: prosocial behavior as helping, sharing, and comforting subtypes. Frontiers.
- Hangartner, D. et al. (2021). Empathy-based counterspeech can reduce racist hate speech in a social media field experiment. PNAS.
- Jiang, J. A. et al. (2021). Understanding international perceptions of the severity of harmful content online. PLOS One.
- Scheuerman, M. K. et al. (2021). A Framework of Severity for Harmful Content Online. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction.
- Table 3: An Adaptation of Caldarella and Merrell’s (1997) Taxonomy of Prosocial and Problem Behaviors. Institute for Applied Psychometrics.
- Voll, K. (2023). The sociality of video games: Embracing games as social infrastructure. ACM Games: Research and Practice.
