Abstract
This study examines the influence prosocial media content designed using Self Determination Needs has on different age groups. This research is important as it could provide valuable insights for prosocial organisations to identify demographic groups that are more susceptible to provide help when exposed to prosocial media content. In this study, experiment data from Scratchbac (A prosocial media platform) is used for analysis. The experiment was formulated by the research team and administered by Scratchbac. In the experiment, 1600 users were split into a control and treatment group and further split into age ranges. The treatment groups were then exposed to prosocial media stimulus and the results were compared between groups. Through the analysis, we find that all age groups on Scratchbac who are exposed to prosocial media content designed using SDT will subsequently be more likely to provide help with the age group of 30 - 39 most susceptible to the stimulus. Although the 30 – 39 age range is most susceptible to the stimulus, more users are from the age group 22 – 29 and it would be more effective to target this age group on Scratchbac. This observation could be because for every 1.57 users motivated to help in the 30 – 39 age group, we get 2.71 users in the 22 – 29 age group. This result is important for businesses as it would influence their value proposition, target personal and marketing resources. To further examine how our results can influence business, we examined the business model and user demographics of Olio and Nextdoor and speculate why they target certain user groups