‘Hero’ and ‘Little Hero’: Two Technological Applications to Promote Prosocial Behavior in Adolescents and Children

Prosocial behavior can have positive impacts on both the individual and society. Studies show that fostering empathy, gratitude, forgiveness, and positive emotions in children and adolescents can inhibit aggressive behavior, improve the acceptance and integration of diversity, and enhance the meaningful interpersonal relations, while accelerating the development of social abilities and sense of community.

This project will foster prosocial behavior in children and adolescents in five Latin American countries—Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay—through the use of two web-based programs, called Hero and Little Hero, consisting of a series of psycho-educational videos and activities. The subjects will include statistically similar sample and control populations in order to study the efficacy of the intervention during the experimental period and the subsequent three months.

Outputs

• Improved quality in specific features of the programs such as videos and voice-overs, as well as new and improved activities
• A workshop in Argentina for researchers to collectively analyze their data and plan for future documentation
• Six presentations of the collected data at national and international conferences
• Six manuscripts submitted to peer-reviewed journals
• An academic book on the role of different variables in the promotion of prosocial behavior and mitigation of aggressive behaviors
• Dissemination of results through social networks
• Three articles in major Latin American news publications

Outcomes

• A higher level of prosocial behavior in the 2,250 Hero and Little Hero participants
• A regional increase in scholarly interest in issues pertaining to the promotion of prosocial behavior
• A growing awareness among the broader public on the necessity of promoting prosociality, and the specific advantages that web-based technology can provide