Cooling Down Prompt

Goal: Decrease engagement with harmful content Evidence rating (PDN): Likely Civic signal: Understand — Show reliable information When to use: Proactive

What it is

Message that prompts users to make decisions after letting their emotions cool down first.

Intended impact

By regulating one’s emotions a cooling down prompt will decrease engagement with harmful content and increase engagement with harmless content

Evidence that it works

Celadin et al. (2024) conducted a simulated social media experiment to assess the effect of message-based nudges aimed at reducing engagement with harmful (i.e. hateful or abusive) content. In one of those nudges designed to cool down negative feelings, participants were asked to avoid their immediate negative emotions when making decisions on engaging with posts. After being exposed to the prompt, participants saw 14 social media posts which spanned varying levels of harmfulness. The researchers observed how the nudge affected engagement (measured by the sum of reactions, comments, shares) with the posts. When participants saw the cool-down nudge, they were more likely to engage with content if it was harmless compared to harmful. (Note: all effects we include are statistically significant, unless otherwise stated.)

Why it matters

Engagement with social media posts can boost their ranking and thus affect what other users see and how likely content will spread. Designs that reduce engagement on harmful content may decrease the spread of that content. As a consequence of this, ways to successfully cool down negative emotions might be helpful in creating healthier information ecosystems.

Special considerations

The full text of the cooling down prompt used by the researchers is below, including the phrases they bolded. In adapting a prompt for a social media experience, platforms may want to draw from those bolded sections.

"Sometimes people make decisions following their immediate negative emotions. Other times, people make decisions by letting their emotions cool down first. Many people believe that avoiding their immediate negative emotions leads to good decision-making. When we avoid our immediate negative emotions, we make decisions that typically prevent us from feeling bad. Please make your decisions on this social media platform by letting your negative emotions cool down."

Citations

• *Promoting civil discourse on social media using nudges: A tournament of seven interventions* — Celadin, Tatiana, Folco Panizza, and Valerio Capraro (PNAS nexus)

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From the Prosocial Design Network's Digital Intervention Library (https://www.prosocialdesign.org/library/cooling-down-prompt), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Reformatted for the RT Commons; text otherwise as published. Library citation: Prosocial Design Network (2024), Digital Intervention Library, https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/Q4RMB. Anything built from this pattern should credit the Prosocial Design Network and the researchers cited above.

Details

• goal: Decrease engagement with harmful content
• citations: [object Object]
• image alt: A pop-up box mockup with an hourglass icon, which asks the user to "Take a moment to cool own before making a decision."
• image url: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/647f696dc653a97c26f42a0b/6950172110702148acb51bec_Pause%402x.png
• pdn rating: Likely
• when to use: Proactive
• civic signal: Understand
• pdn library doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/Q4RMB
• civic signal goal: Show reliable information