What We Do
We believe that digital products can be designed to help us better understand one another.
That’s why we are building an international network of behavioral science and design experts to articulate a better, more prosocial future online; and to disentangle the Web’s most glaring drawbacks: from misunderstandings to incitements to hatred.
Our Mission
We are the Prosocial Design Network, and our mission is to promote prosocial design: evidence-based design practices that bring out the best in human nature online.
We inspire and co-create the infrastructure needed to turn the web into something that does not weaken, but rather strengthens, the wellness of our democracy and our selves.
Background
Many believed the World Wide Web would lead to worldwide peace. Everyone would talk and understand each other. Or so we thought.
It hasn’t turned out that way: even one of the inventors of the Internet says its design is creating outrage and polarization. The Web as we know it now, thirty years later, makes us more addicted, tribal, and afraid.
Yet hope endures to restore some of the potential the Internet once had for understanding and meaningful connection. We know from long-standing research that human decision making is very sensitive to the environment in which it happens. We also know that, as a result, even the subtlest design changes can influence human behavior.
Therefore, it’s not a leap to believe that, through better design, we could change the Internet to be a better place. We can even imagine a future in which online interaction between strangers might evoke the same genuine empathy as if they met face-to-face.
Why Does Prosocial Design Matter?
We’ve found that many designers express interest in combating hate, harassment, and disinformation online, but find themselves without clear guidance on how to do so. To date, most existing interventions rely on common sense or intuition about what will work, and not empirical science. Similarly, the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has presented us with a situation where communicating over the Internet must be the default for the near future.
Without design interventions to the contrary, our commonly used social interfaces risk aiding and abetting hateful rhetoric’s spread.
Our Sponsors
The Prosocial Design Network is made possible with generous, foundational support from:
Additional support is provided by:
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors ensures that the Prosocial Design Network's mission is being fulfilled, and oversees the general operation of our work.
Joel Putnam
Co-President, Acting Treasurer
Joel Putnam (he/him) is a nonprofit communications and technology professional based in Seattle. He received his MPA in Economic and Political Development from Columbia University, and serves as Investor Relations Officer for Impact-First Investor, Global Partnerships. Learn more at joelrputnam.com.
John Fallot
Co-President, Acting Secretary
John Fallot (he/him) is a user experience and graphic designer based in the New York City Metro Area. He co-founded the Prosocial Design Network with colleague Joel Putnam in late 2019, in order to better explore ways that the web could be optimized for prosocial behaviors.
David Grüning
Science Board Chair
David Grüning (he/him) is a research scientist based in Heidelberg, Germany. His research covers topics of psychology in politicized digital environments. You can access David’s work on Google Scholar or his website.
Farzaneh Badiei, Ph.D.
Board Member
Dr. Farzaneh Badiei is the founder of Digital Medusa, an initiative protecting digital spaces with sound governance. For the past decade, she has undertaken Internet governance research at Yale, Georgia Tech, and the Humboldt Institute for Internet & Society in Berlin.
Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, Ph.D.
Board Member
Dr. Philipp Lorenz-Spreen (he/him) is a research scientist based in Berlin, Germany. His work focuses on decision making online, and finding ways to improve online democratic discourse through environmental interventions.
Laure X Cast
Board Member + User Research Lead
Laure X Cast (they/them) is a researcher and strategist living in Portland, Oregon. Laure’s passions center on curiosity, community, and creativity. They have spoken at SXSW, Grace Hopper Celebration, among others. You can learn more about Laure’s experience at (x+x)
Science Board
The Science Board of the Prosocial Design Network is a group of experts in fields such as psychology, human computer interaction, and behavioral science.
They provide guidance and support to the network in developing evidence-based, interface design interventions, which are aimed at promoting prosocial behavior and reducing conflict in online spaces.
The board's members also collaborate on research projects, contribute to the dissemination of knowledge about prosocial design, and grade interventions based on an agreed upon rubric.
The Science Board meets every other week to discuss the latest in academic research, and to sit down with fellow scholars in the field to glean novel findings from their work.
David Grüning
Science Board Chair
David Grüning (he/him) is a research scientist based in Heidelberg, Germany. His research covers topics of psychology in politicized digital environments. You can access David’s work on Google Scholar or his website.
Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, Ph.D.
Board Member
Dr. Philipp Lorenz-Spreen (he/him) is a research scientist based in Berlin, Germany. His work focuses on decision making online, and finding ways to improve online democratic discourse through environmental interventions.
Julia Kamin, Ph.D.
Managing Director
Julia Kamin (she/her) is a researcher based in New York City. She currently works with Civic Health Project, developing a measurement tool for organizations to gauge their impact on reducing polarization.
Matt Katsaros
Science Board Member
Matt Katsaros is the Director of the Social Media Governance Initiative at the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School. He has spent the past decade working in the tech industry (two years at Twitter and seven years at Facebook).
Folco Panizza
Science Board Member
Folco Panizza (he/him) is a cognitive and behavioral scientist at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan. His work centers on combating scientific disinformation and vaccine hesitancy.
Library Team
The Library Team reviews and vets research that tests the effectiveness of online prosocial designs in order to identify and add evidence-based interventions to the Prosocial Design Network's Library.
Eugenia Quintanilla
Library Fellow
Eugenia Quintanilla (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in political science at the University of Michigan in the American Political Behavior subfield. Her research includes studies on prosociality, race and ethnic politics, and survey measurement design.
Peter Ondish
Library Team
Peter Ondish is a behavioral scientist and research consultant. He is also the co-founder and Chief Scientist for bluefoxlabs.ai, LLC.
Nattapat Boonprakong
Library Team
Nattapat Boonprakong (he/him) is a PhD candidate in Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research interest involves Empathic Computing and Cognition-Aware Systems, in particular the Quantification of Cognitive Biases.
Marco De Carlo
Library Team
Marco De Carlo (he/him) is a PhD candidate in Economics, Networks and Business Analytics at the IMT School in Lucca, Italy. His research interests involve behavioral economics, game theory, and industrial organization, particularly as tools to interpret political dynamics on social media.
Julia Kamin, Ph.D.
Managing Director
Julia Kamin (she/her) is a researcher based in New York City. She currently works with Civic Health Project, developing a measurement tool for organizations to gauge their impact on reducing polarization.
David Grüning
Science Board Chair
David Grüning (he/him) is a research scientist based in Heidelberg, Germany. His research covers topics of psychology in politicized digital environments. You can access David’s work on Google Scholar or his website.
Folco Panizza
Science Board Member
Folco Panizza (he/him) is a cognitive and behavioral scientist at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan. His work centers on combating scientific disinformation and vaccine hesitancy.
Advisory Board
The Advisory Board consists of high-level representatives from technology and the behavioral sciences, who help guide the Prosocial Design Network's future work and initiatives.
Chris Messina
Inventor of the hashtag
Chris Messina is a Product Lead focused on issuer experience at Republic, an inclusive fundraising platform that is disrupting conventional venture capital. He is best known for inventing the hashtag.
You can learn more about Chris Messina at his website: chrismessina.me
Sahar Massachi
Co-Founder, Integrity Institute
Sahar Massachi is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Integrity Institute.
A past fellow of the Berkman Klein Center, Sahar is currently an advisory committee member for the Louis D. Brandeis Legacy Fund for Social Justice, a StartingBloc fellow, and a Roddenbery Fellow.
Jay Van Bavel, Ph.D.
New York University
Jay Van Bavel is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University, and co-author of The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony. You can read more about his work at: www.jayvanbavel.com.
David Dylan Thomas
Author, Design for Cognitive Bias
David Dylan Thomas, author of Design for Cognitive Bias, creator and host of The Cognitive Bias Podcast, and a twenty-year practitioner of content strategy and UX, has consulted major clients in entertainment, healthcare, publishing, finance, and retail.
Ravi Iyer
Managing Director, Neely Center
Ravi Iyer is the Managing Director of the USC Marshall School’s Neely Center. Previously, he spent 4+ years leading data and product teams across Meta toward improving social media's societal impact via design.
Our Fellows
Our fellows are dedicated personnel that assist in our day to day operations.
Maria Arango-kure
Communications Fellow
Maria Arango-kure is a researcher, developer and advocate for ethical digitalization.
Jess Weaver
Editorial Fellow
Jess is a researcher and communications strategist at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.
Past Contributors
We are grateful for the following Prosocial Design Network members, who have played a critical role in contributing to our growth:
Dr. Xuan Zhao
Dr. Xuan Zhao is a Research Scientist at Stanford University and a co-founder of Flourish Science. She studies social connection, well-being, and technology, and has rich experiences designing science-based products to share research insights and create inclusive environments.
Manoel Horta Ribeiro
Manoel Horta Ribeiro is a Ph.D. student at EPFL in Switzerland. Through a computational social science lens, his work examines how content curation practices (existing and novel) can improve online platforms, making them more enjoyable, helpful, safe, and civil.
Gionnieve Lim
Gionnieve is a PhD candidate at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). Her research area is on the intersection of human-computer interaction with civic technology and with misinformation.
Stephanie Rodriguez
Stephanie Rodriguez (she/her) is currently a media and communications researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she's exploring mediated political participation in contemporary American social movements. You can learn more about her experiences on her LinkedIn.