Speaking of Psychology - Digital altruism and cyberheroes (SOP8)

Episode Date: March 3, 2014

“Cyberheroes” are those who actively use the Internet and digital technologies to help others, animals and the environment, says psychologist Dana Klisanin, PhD. She researches how online interactions can promote compassion and altruism and is even designing a video game that could help young people tackle global challenges using their computers. In this episode, Dr. Klisanin discusses how social media and online interactions can be a force for good. APA is currently seeking proposals for APA 2020, click here to learn more https://convention.apa.org/proposals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The study of online behavior often focuses on the negative, such as cyberbullying or cyber attacks. But psychologist Dana Klasanan is studying the ways people are using the internet to help others. She calls it digital altruism. I'm Audrey Hamilton, and this is speaking of psychology. Dana Klesanin studies and designs media and interactive technologies that encourage people to live consciously. Dr. Klasanin is currently investigating the impact. the internet and social media have on heroism. She is the designer of an award-winning online game,

the Cyberhero League. She is also the founder and CEO of Evolutionary Guidance Media R&D Incorporated. Welcome, Dr. Clisen. Thank you. It's nice to speak with you today. You study cyber heroes. What is a cyber hero? Well, a cyber hero is an archetype.

It's a new archetype, a new form of the hero. And the way I usually define it is as an individual. individual who uses the internet or social media to help other people, animals, or the environment. You described something in your research called collaborative heroism. Can you talk about what that is and how it relates to the rise of social media? Yes. Collaborative heroism is my most recent area of research and really what it is. A lot of people have the idea that people who take action online, there's a nickname that was coined to to refer to that called slacktivist. And so it gives us negative connotation that people who are taking action online are somehow slacking off on taking action in, let's just say, offline,

getting out and about and collecting signatures or whatever. But actually, research has found that people who take action online are up to five times more likely to take action offline and to recruit other people to take action. So the idea is that the cyber activity, the cyber hero, blended with the offline activity, creates a collaborative form of heroism that's more powerful than either one separately. What are some examples of websites that encourage this type of heroic behavior? Well, some of the social initiatives that I studied that encourage this behavior include the Kone 2012 campaign, as well as Avaas. dot org and causes, which is part of the Facebook platform.

And how is this type of, these type of sites? Are they different in any essential ways from more traditional forms of heroism? Are they more powerful? It's very different than traditional forms of or conceptualizations of heroism because we normally associate the hero with risk to one's life. And with some of this online activity, you're not really. really risking your life to engage in it, unless there's a caveat there, unless you live in a country where the Internet is censored or you're in some way, you know, restricted as to what your

freedom of speech and expression is restricted. I personally think that it's a very powerful form of heroism in a different way, but in, you know, any time that you can get millions of people engage together, you can create change. And that's the hope. Can you tell us about your project, the Cyber Hero League? Sounds fascinating. Cyberhero League is a game that I'm in the process of developing. And what it is is just a way to spread the archetype knowledge about the archetype in a fun way to young people. I hope that people will play this across the age spectrum, but it's just a way to put the archetype out there

and empower people to realize that they can use technology in this way. What does the game do? How does it work? So the way the game works is the player signs up and his goal or her goal is to earn the badges of our participating nonprofit organizations. Right now we have over 13 nonprofit organizations and we're aiming to add more as we continue the development. But what the player will do is complete a series of apprenticeships

and in the process they'll earn the badge of that particular nonprofit. So instead of earning fake badges, they'll actually be earning the badge of the nonprofit. And some of our nonprofits are acting to protect indigenous peoples, the habitats of indigenous peoples. Others have to do with protecting the coral reefs and still others have to do with protecting the night sky from light pollution. So we have a real large variety of areas that the players will learn about and take action

on behalf of. So one of the novel things about the Cyber Hero League is while the player is completing the apprenticeships and playing the games, he or she is actually contributing to the towards the goals of the nonprofits. In other words, funds are then given to the nonprofits, and the player gets the credit for having, let's say, you know, saved an acre of rainforest or fed someone or provided medicine or shelter and so forth. So they're actually making a difference in the world while they're playing. Are you inspired by what you've discovered in your research? Yes, I am inspired by what I've discovered in my research.

because I believe that this form of collaborative heroism is empowering and the cyber impact is also important because right now we hear so much about the cyber bully. We hear about cyber stalkers. We hear about cyber crime. We hear about cyber war. We very rarely hear anything, any positive words that have to do with the Internet. And I do believe that some of the previous... research I looked at in digital altruism and now in the cyber hero and collaborative heroism help us to expand the way that we think of the potential of the web, that it can be used, and it is being used in positive ways. And in order to promote that idea in society, we have to have words with which to speak of it. Great. Thank you so much for joining us,

Dr. Clasanin. Thanks for inviting me. For more information on Dr. Clisannon's work, please visit our website at speakingofpsychology.org. With the American Psychological Association's Speaking of Psychology, I'm Audrey Hamilton.