Prosociality across adulthood: Social discounting and donations in the United States and China.

Authors

Yi Lu, Hongmei Lin, Corinna E Löckenhoff, Xin Zhang, Shuyao Liao, Helene H Fung

Published in

Psychology and aging. Oct 19, 2026. Epub Oct 19, 2026.

Abstract

Social discounting refers to the decline in generosity as the perceived social distance to another person increases. Despite growing interest in age differences in prosocial behavior, little is known about how people's generosity and social discounting vary across adulthood under different cultural contexts. This study examined age-related differences in social discounting and charitable giving in two independently preregistered adult lifespan samples from the United States (n = 484) and China (n = 555). Participants completed a social discounting task (choosing between keeping money vs. giving it to another person at varying social distances), a charitable giving measure (keeping money vs. donating to their favorite charity), and a horizontal-vertical individualism-collectivism scale assessing cultural values. Regression models examined the effects of age and cultural values while controlling for country, collection mode, and demographic variables. Advanced age was associated with lower social discounting and more charitable donations, although no age differences were found in the total amounts given across social distances. After controlling for cultural values and demographics, these age effects remained robust only for social discounting. Exploratory findings revealed that, compared with Chinese participants, U.S. participants discounted less and donated more to charities even after adjusting for cultural values and demographics. Consistent with prior findings, higher horizontal collectivism was associated with lower social discounting, higher overall generosity, and greater donation to charities, whereas higher vertical individualism was linked to lower overall generosity and charitable giving. Findings advance the understanding of how prosociality and social discounting unfold across adulthood and highlight the role of cultural values. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

PMID:
42895500
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 19 Oct 2026.

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