Social media algorithms are, with exceptions, designed to engage. Critics contend that comes at a cost to civic society by amplifying content that stirs outrage and toxic division. But can ranking algorithms be designed instead to foster discourse and pluralism? And does doing so have to come at the expense of engagement?

​​Kylan Rutherford is a researcher on the Prosocial Ranking Challenge, a project that has been working to answer those questions by conducting a large-scale field experiment across Facebook, X and Reddit. By recruiting participants who install browser extensions that can reorder their social media feeds, the team was able to examine how well different prosocial rankers – submitted by outside researchers – reduced animosity between political groups. During this session, we'll hear what they learned, and Kylan will also discuss the promise and challenges of conducting browser extension studies as a way to test the effectiveness of prosocial design interventions.  

​​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.