Beyond money: Nonmonetary prosociality across adulthood

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Gerontology
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Existing research indicates self-reported prosociality and monetary donations increase with age.
• Older adults possess greater financial assets, potentially reducing the perceived cost of monetary donations.
• The study questions whether this age-related increase in prosociality extends to nonmonetary resource donations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if older adults exhibit higher prosociality when donating nonmonetary resources compared to younger age groups.
• To examine age differences in prosocial behavior across different donation domains, including monetary and nonmonetary resources.

Main Methods:

• Study 1 (N=160) used self-report measures, affective responses, and hypothetical donations to calculate a prosociality factor.
• Studies 2 (N=156) and 3 (N=342) employed behavioral measures of time donation (in service of charity) analyzed with Bayesian statistics.

Main Results:

• Study 1 suggested nonmonetary prosociality increases with age, but this varied by donation domain.
• Studies 2 and 3 provided evidence that older adults are not more prosocial than younger or middle-aged adults when donating time.
• Overall, age-related prosociality differences were not consistently observed in nonmonetary domains.

Conclusions:

• Older adults are not consistently more prosocial than younger or middle-aged adults in nonmonetary domains.
• Findings highlight the need to explore prosociality and aging beyond financial donations, considering resource availability and perceived costs.
• Future research should investigate the nuanced relationship between age, resources, and diverse forms of prosocial behavior.