Generosity and cooperation across the life span: A lab-in-the-field study.

Abstract

Understanding persistence and changes in prosociality across the life span is fundamental to inform theory and practice. As life expectancy increases and pressing societal challenges demand increasing generosity and cooperation among individuals, it is crucial to understand intergenerational interactions. We present the findings from a novel lab-in-the-field experiment (N ϭ 359, 18 -90 years) that examines generosity and cooperation between generations. Our methodological approach allows us to study the effect of age on prosocial behavior as a function of the age of an unknown partner. We ask participants to make several decisions, and to state their expectations for their partners' behavior, in a dictator game and a prisoner's dilemma game with real monetary outcomes. The dictator game serves as a measure of generosity, whereas the prisoner's dilemma serves as a measure of cooperation. We find that individuals used age as key information to condition behavior. Generosity was greater among older adults in response to young and older relative to middle-aged partners. Among younger adults, cooperation was greater in response to middle-aged and older partners relative to their own age cohort. All age groups expect less cooperation from young partners than from older and middle-aged partners. However, relative to young adults, older adults are more cooperative with young partners. Our study has crucial implications for the understanding of human generosity and cooperation across the life span.

Introduction to the special issue on prosociality in adult development and aging: Advancing theory within a multilevel framework.

“…Previous studies with young adults have shown that enhancing feelings of group membership and a “common group identity” can increase contributions to the common good and helping towards outgroup members (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000). Romano et al (2021) did not find that the ingroup, defined as one’s own age group, influenced effects of age on prosociality. However, the focus in their study was on prosocial action directed towards an individual within each age group, rather than the group per se.…”

“…In fact, apart from the oldest-old individuals potentially requiring (more than giving) help, an important question in an aging population is the degree to which people are willing to behave prosocially towards older adults, and the degree to which older adults are willing to accept help. Romano et al (2021) showed that, despite all age groups expecting less cooperation from young adults relative to the older age groups, young adults were more likely to cooperate with middle-aged and older individuals than individuals from their own age group. Prosocial action directed towards older adults has implications in diverse settings from macro-level health care and organizational settings to meso-level interpersonal family relationships.…”

“…Using an innovative “lab-in-field” approach, Romano et al (2021) used interactive games to assess cooperation and generosity with unfamiliar partners in an adult lifespan sample. Whereas generosity involves one person making the decision to help another, cooperation involves both partners making a joint decision to gain mutual benefit.…”

Emotional Intelligence as a Predictor of Prosocial Behaviors in Spanish and Colombian Older Adults Based on Path Models

“…According to a search in Web of Science, which was carried out in November 2021, using the terms “prosociality” AND “older adults”, the literature among prosocial behavior in this age group is exponentially increasing. Apparently, older adults show more prosocial behavior than young adults [ 33 , 34 , 35 ], even during the pandemic [ 36 ]. It seems that the prosocial behavior in older adults refers to a stabilization of social conditions suitable to serve the other from unconditionality, moderation, the desire to contribute, sensitivity towards the evil of others, and a prevailing need to generate personal and social well-being in the different contexts of the life of the individual.…”

Heterogenous effects of the Great East Japan earthquake on prosociality of people depending on their age

“…Using survey questions to measure prosociality, Van Lange et al 15 show that the prevalence of prosociality increased from early adulthood to middle adulthood and old age. Romano et al 16 adopt laboratory experiments such as dictator and prisoner's dilemma games to subjects of different ages, finding generally strong prosociality among the elderly. Mienaltowski and Wichman 17 conduct iterated prisoner's dilemma games with different age groups in anonymous or nonanonymous settings.…”