The Role of Digital Pro-social and Anti-social Experiences on the People Well-Being and Health

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, we are organizing a Special Issue about the role of digital prosocial and/or antisocial experiences on the individuals’ and communities’ well-being and health from the social psychology perspective.

Despite the advancement of digital media studies increasing, their application to improve peoples' well-being and health remains largely untapped, as World Health Organization pointed out. Assuming that digital media is not simply a communication tool, representing “real” relational and symbolic contexts in which individuals and groups have their social experiences, this Special Issue invites the submission of high-quality empirical papers, reviews, and meta-analyses to advance the understanding of the relationships between digital pro-social and anti-social contents and behaviors and individuals’ and community well-being and health, focusing on the contribution that social psychology can make in this sense.

We would appreciate the use of a range of theoretical and methodological approaches, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. We particularly welcome high-quality studies investigating the various digital environments (e.g., social networks, videogames, web-based applications in general, virtual or augmented reality, etc.), the various forms of pro-social and/or anti-social contents (e.g., digital discrimination, hate speech, etc.) and behaviors (e.g., anti-racist and condemning behaviors, pro-environmental attitudes, collective actions, cyberbullying, etc.), and their relationship with individuals’ and communities’ well-being and health.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Online discrimination against minorities;
• Cyberbullying or social exclusion actions;
• New media and Web3.0 technologies as a proof of social support, helping, and other pro-social behaviors;
• Benefits, challenges, and/or trends and issues related to new media and Web3.0 technologies and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors;
• Benefits, challenges, and/or trends and issues related to new media and Web3.0 technologies and anti-racial, anti-sexist attitudes, and behaviors;
• Benefits and/or challenges related to the use of new media and digital technologies and collective actions. 

Contributions must follow one of the three categories (article/review/conceptual paper) of papers of the journal and address the topic of the Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Mancini Tiziana
Dr. Chiara Imperato
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• new media
• WEB3.0 technologies
• well-being
• health