How can we foster connection in social gaming spaces?

​In Fall 2025, Roblox and Prosocial Design Network brought together more than 40 academics and Roblox team members, all inspired by that question and about the possibility of catalyzing new research. In a day of small group workshopping, participants co-imagined design solutions to promote prosocial engagement – from cooperating to teaching – that could lead to connection, belonging and wellbeing. The convening then produced six research projects, funded by Roblox, to explore and test several of the ideas that emerged from the day's discussions.

Join us for this 90-minute Researcher Roundtable, hosted by the Inspired Internet Pledge, when we will hear from the convening's co-hosts to learn about the design ideas generated during the day and from the project teams who will share initial findings from their research. Presentations will be followed by breakout groups where we hope to explore the potential of adapting and adopting the design ideas presented – and also how we can catalyze yet more actionable research toward hosting healthy online spaces.

12pm ET

LLMs have created new, exciting avenues for social science research through the ability to simulate human behavior at scale. With AI agents that interact, communicate, and respond to one another, research can study complex social phenomena and offer a stage to test theories about how platform design shapes human behavior.

​Our speaker, Jacy Reese Anthis, studies LLM social simulations and how they can be used to learn about online behaviors. Even with the promise of LLM-based social simulations to test prosocial design interventions before they even touch real users, just as with any emerging research method, these simulations carry important limitations that deserve attention. Questions about validity, representational bias, and whether we are studying human behavior or how LLMs model it are important to confront before adopting these tools. This workshop will explore both the promises and the pitfalls of using LLM social simulations as a research method to equip us with the grounding of whether and how LLM social simulation is appropriate to answer research questions.

​​​PDN Prosocial Design Research Workshops are an informal meeting space where we will gather for a one-hour, interactive online session to learn more about new work in this area. Each workshop session begins with a presentation, followed by a Q&A that also encourages constructive feedback. We’ll end with breakout groups to dig deeper and build connections around our session’s topic.

13:30 ET

David Grüning (Max Planck Institute) and Julia Kamin (Prosocial Design Network) discuss our researcher-practitioner convening with Roblox. In the second segment of The Council of Tech and Social Cohesion's Global Expo 2026: "From Harm Mitigation to Intentional Design"