Abstract
Population aging is a global phenomenon with substantial implications across society1,2. Prosocial behaviors—actions that benefit others—promote mental and physical health across the lifespan3,4 and can save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined whether age predicts prosociality in a preregistered global study (46,576 people aged 18–99 across 67 countries) using two acutely relevant measures: distancing during COVID-19 and willingness to donate to hypothetical charities. Age positively predicted prosociality on both measures, with increased distancing and donations among older adults. However, older adults were more in-group focused than younger adults in choosing who to help, making larger donations to national over international charities and reporting increased in-group preferences. In-group preferences helped explain greater national over international donations. Results were robust to several control analyses and internal replication. Our findings have vital implications for predicting the social and economic impacts of aging populations, increasing compliance with public health measures and encouraging charitable donations.
Highlights
Population aging is a global phenomenon with substantial implications across society[1,2]
Emerging evidence suggests that older adults might be more prosocial than younger adults[6] on measures including economic games[7,8,9], learning about rewards for others[10], effortful actions[11] and charitable donations[12,13,14,15]
From findings that in-group preference increases with age[22,23], we predicted that scores on national identity and collective narcissism
Summary
Population aging is a global phenomenon with substantial implications across society[1,2]. We tested these preregistered hypotheses of age-related differences in prosocial behavior and traits using data from 46,576 participants collected as representative samples in 67 countries (see Methods).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
