A Scoping Review of Prosocial and Antisocial Media Content and Effects in Narrative Entertainment Research Across Five Decades

Despite the popularity of investigations into prosocial and antisocial media content and effects in entertainment research, the essence and boundary conditions of these terms are not well-demarcated. In a preregistered scoping review, we explored how prosocial and antisocial have been defined in narrative entertainment literature according to a comprehensive scheme of moral values outlined by the model of intuitive-morality and exemplars (MIME). Examining all N = 346 studies investigating pro/antisocial content/effects published before 2021, we coded whether these terms were defined as the upholding/violation of care, fairness, loyalty, respect for authority, purity, or general-moral concerns. Results revealed pro/antisocial are mostly defined as the upholding/violation of care concerns, but many definitions also focused on fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity. Discussion centers on the MIME’s utility for (a) illuminating robust patterns possibly hidden in past research, (b) guiding future research attempting to distinguish pro/antisocial media content, and (c) explaining media’s influence on audiences across the lifespan.