Acute Stress and Altruism in Younger and Older Adults

Altruism is the motivation to help others (Andreoni, 1989). A growing literature suggests that altruism is associated with age (for a review, see Bekkers& Wiepking, 2011). In cross-sectional studies, adult age shows positive linear relationships to subjective, behavioral, and neural measures of altruism and prosocial behavior (Freund& Blanchard-Fields, 2014; Hubbard et al., 2016; Sparrow& Spaniol, 2018). Why older adults are more altruistic than younger adults is still poorly understood. Life-span theories of motivation postulate age-related changes in value orientations, such that generativity (Erikson, 1982) and ego-transcending goals (Brandtst ädter et al., 2010) gain strength as we age.

Source: Psychoneuroendocrinology - September 19, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Erika P. Sparrow, Bonnie A. Armstrong, Alexandra J. Fiocco, Julia Spaniol Source Type: research