Aging, empathy, and prosociality.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Although empathy is a well-established motivation in younger adults for helping others, it is not known whether this extends to aging. Prioritization of socioemotional goals with age may increase the salience of helping others (i.e., prosocial behavior), but older adults also experience decreased cognitive empathy. Thus, we investigated age-related differences in relationships among empathy and prosocial behavior.

Method

Participants were 24 younger (M = 19.8 years) and 24 older (M = 77.9 years) healthy adults. Whereas participants believed the study involved playing the dictator game, in reality, state emotional empathy was induced implicitly through a note from an opponent describing their experience with cancer. Prosocial behavior was measured by participants'

SUBMITTER: Beadle JN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4415076 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature