A study of the influence of altruism, social responsibility, reciprocity, and the subjective norm on online prosocial behavior in adolescence

While the study of offline prosocial behavior has a long tradition, much less information is available about how these behaviors manifest and change in the digital environment, and little is known about their background. This paper evaluates differences by age and gender in a variety of attitudes and beliefs during adolescence and studies their influence on the online prosocial behavior emitted and received. A cross-sectional study was performed with 1299 participants aged between 14 and 20 from the Region of Madrid (Spain). The Spanish adaptation of the Online Prosocial Behavior Scale and a selection of items from various studies on attitudes and beliefs regarding altruism, direct and indirect reciprocity, social responsibility, and the perception of the subjective norm were administered. The results suggest that female adolescents maintain higher altruism, social responsibility, and indirect reciprocity than males, and that the older age group (18–20 years old) has higher scores in altruism, social responsibility, and direct reciprocity. Together with altruism, the subjective norm, social responsibility, and indirect reciprocity positively influence the online prosocial behavior emitted by adolescents. Indirect reciprocity, the subjective norm and altruism also influence the feeling of receiving online prosocial behaviors from others. Knowing the extent to which adolescents hold prosocial beliefs and which of these beliefs may favor prosocial online behaviors can be beneficial when promoting such beliefs and fostering more positive online conduct, as well as lessening cyberbullying, online hate and any other manifestation of aggressive behavior online.