Abstract

Prosocial responding (intentional, voluntary behavior that benefits another) involves a variety of personal qualities including concern for other, perspective taking, empathy and emotional regulation. We examined characteristics of net generation(N-generation) who got familiar with cyber-space through computers from early. Based on these characteristics such as anonymousness, discrete multiple identities in cyber-interactions, disinhibition of expression, we explored possible relations of the characteristics to prosocial moral development: 1) Relations of thinking style in cyber-space to prosocial cognition, 2) Relations of emotional expressions in cyber-space to empathy as a prosocial emotion, 3) Relations of interaction patterns in cyber-space to personal concern for another in real life, 4) Relations of impulsivity in cyber-space to regulation of negative emotion as a promoter in prosocial responding. Then, some feasible strategies that can enhance prosocial responding in socialization processes were suggested: 1) Parental emphasis on prosocial value in real life, 2) Giving a desirable prosocial model to children and adolescents, 3) Use of inductive messages to promote empathic responding, 4) Intrinsic reinforcement for prosocial behavior, 5) Practices in regulating expressions of negative emotion, and 6) Developing school-based programs designed to enhance prosocial responding.