Prosociality

Prosociality refers to voluntary behaviour intended to benefit others, including helping, sharing, comforting, and cooperating. In accessibility and dementia research, prosocial acts observed during group activities - passing a card so a peer can see it, a reassuring touch on the arm, checking that someone can hear a generated song - are treated as indicators of social engagement and inclusion. Designing technologies that create space for these acts (rather than channelling all interaction through a single user and device) is an established strategy for supporting social connectedness in populations prone to isolation.