A meta-analysis published in the journal Psychology and Aging has revealed that aging and altruism are positively associated, such that, older adults show more altruism compared to younger adults.
“Aging and altruism has been a longstanding research interest of mine throughout my academic career. Year-to-year older adults consistently give more to charitable organizations than younger adults but the mechanisms that support this effect are just beginning to be understood,” said study author Erika Sparrow, a research impact analyst at the University Health Network.
Life span developmental theories suggest that aging is accompanied with an increase in altruism. However, it is unclear whether these observed age differences are due to age-related motivational shifts – such as changes in priorities – or whether they reflect access to external resources, such as money, social connections, or health. The resource perspective of aging and altruism is supported by findings that charitable giving drops among the oldest-old individuals (between ages 85 to 99), who experience a decline in resources compared to their young-old counterparts (between ages 65 to 84).
Sparrow and colleagues extracted data from 16 existing studies on this topic. The meta-analysis included a combined total of 1581 older and younger adult participants. In these studies, the operationalization of altruism ranged from helping behaviors such as compiling pamphlets for the experimenter, to self-report ratings of amount of money donated to charity, to moral decision making, such as responding to a moral dilemma.
“A handful of studies indicate that older adults are indeed more altruistic than younger adults, and this study was the first to synthesize the existing data. As anticipated, results demonstrated that older adults are more altruistic than younger adults, but interestingly this effect differed when we looked at the age range of the older adults,” Sparrow told PsyPost. “Specifically, older adults over 70 showed a smaller age effect than older adults under 70 years old. These findings align with the theoretical prediction of an age-related increase in altruistic motivation, but they also suggest the importance of cognitive and physical resources that may regress in older age.”
Demographic characteristics such as income and education levels, as well as the methodological features of the 16 studies (e.g., behavioral vs. self-report, real vs. hypothetical scenarios, and anonymous vs. non-anonymous responding), did not explain the observed age differences in altruistic behaviors. Additionally, despite prior reports that women show more altruism compared to men, this meta-analysis found no influence of gender on altruistic tendencies.
However, this research includes some caveats. Studies conducted in Canada and the United States were overrepresented, accounting for 8 of the 16 studies included in the meta-analysis.
Further, “as with many aging studies, cohort effects were a limitation to this study,” Sparrow explained, referring to the possibility that this effect may be a reflection of cohort differences, as opposed to age differences. “I do know that there are ongoing longitudinal studies of aging and altruism and am looking forward to reading these results in the future!”
As for future research questions, she said “I think it would be interesting to look more at the positive impact that altruism has on the individual. Some studies suggest that acts of altruism can increase happiness and wellbeing and even promote physical health.”
The meta-analysis, “Aging and Altruism: A Meta-Analysis”, was authored by Erika P. Sparrow, Liyana T. Swirsky, Farrah Kudus, and Julia Spaniol