The science behind Prabhu's idea is simple: Teens are impulsive and, because of their brain structure, more likely to post hurtful messages without pausing to think about the consequences.
The prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain responsible for self-control that helps people think before acting — isn't fully developed until age 25. Her theory is that if teens are forced to take a moment of reflection before posting a mean comment, they won't do it.
She created a system to test her hypothesis called Rethink, which prompted students who said they would post a mean comment to think about how it might affect its target before posting it. Turns out, in 93.43% of her 533 trials, the student decided not to post the comment.Read more in Business Insider.
