High-status peers shape prosocial behavior in adolescents’ social networks

Adolescence is a formative period in which individuals become more aware of societal needs. To solve global collective challenges, it is critical to encourage prosociality in this developmental phase. School peers play a large role in acquiring prosocial norms and behaviors, yet their influence is rarely investigated experimentally. To understand if peer influence can be harnessed to promote prosociality, we set out to identify the most influential individuals within adolescents’ classroom social networks. In a pre-registered field experiment, we tested whether 456 adolescents aged 11 to 19, conformed more often to high- or low-status peers from their social network. Participants played an incentivized donation game where they could donate money to several charities or keep it to themselves. They could revise their decision upon observing the real choice of a known peer from their classroom. By manipulating the status of the observed sources, we show that high-status peers are consistently the most influential across all age groups, while overall peer influence declines with age. Based on the social networks and conformity rates measured in the experiment, we simulated social contagion interventions to identify conditions that maximize the diffusion of prosocial behaviors. Simulation results show that picking central individuals as “influencers”, increases intervention effectiveness. Our study suggests that high-status adolescents can be agents of prosocial change, thanks to their influence and visibility within social networks.