Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, M5B 2K3, Canada.
Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, M5B 2K3, Canada.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2019 Feb;100:10-17. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.09.025. Epub 2018 Sep 20.
Recent studies of aging and decision making suggests that altruism increases with age. It is unclear, however, whether this pattern holds when choices are made under stress, as is often the case in real-world scenarios. The current study used an intertemporal choice task in which younger and older adults received a financial endowment before making a series of consequential intertemporal decisions involving gains, losses and charitable donations. Preceding the choice task, participants were exposed to a laboratory stressor. Physiological stress reactivity was a predictor of altruistic decision making in younger adults, such that individuals with higher stress reactivity made more generous choices. Older adults showed higher altruism than younger adults overall, with altruism unrelated to stress reactivity in older adults. These findings are consistent with an age-related change in the mechanisms underlying altruistic behavior.
最近关于衰老和决策的研究表明，利他主义随着年龄的增长而增加。然而，当选择是在压力下做出时，这种模式是否成立还不清楚，因为这种情况在现实世界的场景中经常发生。本研究使用了一种跨期选择任务，其中年轻和年长的成年人在做出一系列涉及收益、损失和慈善捐赠的重要跨期决策之前收到了财务捐赠。在选择任务之前，参与者接受了实验室应激源的暴露。生理应激反应是年轻成年人做出更慷慨选择的利他决策的预测因素，即应激反应较高的个体做出更慷慨的选择。总体而言，老年人比年轻人表现出更高的利他主义，而老年人的利他主义与应激反应无关。这些发现与利他行为的潜在机制随年龄变化的观点一致。
