Close other bias in older adults: Effects on prosocial behavior

Human beings are incredibly prosocial: helping others at no material benefit, or even at a cost, to the self. Prosocial behavior enhances interpersonal relationships and improves physical and mental health. Thus, understanding the motivational bases of prosocial behavior may suggest ways to bolster individuals’ well-being. Given the importance of prosocial behavior, surprisingly little attention has been paid to prosocial behavior in older adults. Older adults are faced with prosocial decisions of unprecedented magnitude, typically deciding whether to give money to charities (i.e., socially distant others) and/or to loved ones (i.e., socially close others). Unfortunately, past research provides little insight into prosocial behavior in later life, simultaneously suggesting that older adults are more, less, or equally prosocial compared to younger adults.

Thus, the current project will attempt to rectify these inconsistencies by examining neural and behavioral markers of prosocial behavior across the life span. Our approach will be theoretically grounded in socioemotional selectivity theory (SST). SST suggests that older adults may demonstrate a systematic close other bias in their prosocial decisions: towards helping close, as opposed to distant others. To test this hypothesis, both younger and older adults will be scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging while they watch close or distant others win money. The researchers predict that both neural and behavioral markers of value will suggest that younger and older participants value the positive outcomes of close others over those of distant others. Critically, the researchers predict an accentuation of this effect with age, by which neural and behavioral responses will indicate that older participants value close others’ outcomes more and distant others’ outcomes less, when compared to younger participants. The study findings will reveal how age-related changes in emotion and cognition—such as close other bias— impact prosocial decision- making in later life.