Age differences in social discounting and charitable giving in the United States.

OBJECTIVES: Social discounting describes the tendency to offer fewer resources to a recipient when the perceived social distance to them increases. Some previous research suggests that, compared to younger adults, older adults are more generous to socially distant others (i.e., show lower social discounting rates). However, prior findings are inconsistent, entail methodological limitations, and have focused exclusively on Asian samples. METHODS: We examined age differences in social discounting in two U.S. adult life-span samples assessed via a phone survey (Study 1, n = 870, not pre-registered) and a combined online and in-person survey (Study 2, n = 474, pre-registered). Both studies included a social discounting measure (asking participants to allocate money to themselves versus a range of other people that varied in social distance) and a charitable giving measure (asking participants to allocate money to themselves versus their favorite charity). RESULTS: Results were inconsistent across studies. With respect to total giving across social distances, Study 1 found a positive association with age, whereas Study 2 found no significant age effect. With respect to social discounting, Study 1 found a negative association with age, whereas Study 2 found a curvilinear effect such that the rates of social discounting were lowest in midlife. Only the results of Study 2 remained significant after controlling for demographics. Across two studies, there were no significant age differences in charitable giving. DISCUSSION: We discuss the role of methodological variations and cultural context in accounting for inconsistent findings and outline directions for future research.