TY - JOUR

T1 - The Development of Prosociality

T2 - Evidence for a Negative Association between Age and Prosocial Value Orientation from a Representative Sample in Austria

AU - Ehlert, Alexander

AU - Böhm, Robert

AU - Fleiß, Jürgen

AU - Rauhut, Heiko

AU - Rybnicek, Robert

AU - Winter, Fabian

PY - 2021/9/15

Y1 - 2021/9/15

N2 - While the ontogeny of prosociality during infancy, childhood, and adolescence has receivedsubstantial attention over the last decades, little is known about how prosocial preferences developbeyond emerging adulthood. Recent evidence suggests that the previously observed positive as-sociation between age and prosocial preferences is less robust than assumed. This study reportsresults on the association between social preferences, age, gender, and education from an Austrianrepresentative sample (N = 777, aged 16–94 years) in which incentivized social value orientations(SVO) were measured along with various other sociodemographic characteristics. The analysesconfirm that men are less prosocial than women, however, mainly during emerging adulthood (16–25years). At the same time, the decline of prosociality is stronger among women leading to a conver-gence of prosociality between men and women as they age. Overall, we find that a prosocial valueorientation is negatively correlated with people’s age. We suspect that the susceptibility of peoples’social preferences to the preferences of others in their social environment is a critical factor unifyingthese different observations in the development of prosociality. We hypothesize that the oppositeassociations between age and SVO observed in two previous studies using unincentivized measuresof social preferences are explained in parts by an age-related change in social desirability, measure-ment inaccuracy (continuous vs. categorical), and cross-cultural differences promoting competitivepreferences among emerging adults in Japan. Moreover, we find that political orientations towardsright-wing populists are consistently associated with less prosocial preferences, while educationseems to be positively associated with prosociality. Overall, our study highlights the importance ofconducting representative studies using incentivized measurements across cultures.

AB - While the ontogeny of prosociality during infancy, childhood, and adolescence has receivedsubstantial attention over the last decades, little is known about how prosocial preferences developbeyond emerging adulthood. Recent evidence suggests that the previously observed positive as-sociation between age and prosocial preferences is less robust than assumed. This study reportsresults on the association between social preferences, age, gender, and education from an Austrianrepresentative sample (N = 777, aged 16–94 years) in which incentivized social value orientations(SVO) were measured along with various other sociodemographic characteristics. The analysesconfirm that men are less prosocial than women, however, mainly during emerging adulthood (16–25years). At the same time, the decline of prosociality is stronger among women leading to a conver-gence of prosociality between men and women as they age. Overall, we find that a prosocial valueorientation is negatively correlated with people’s age. We suspect that the susceptibility of peoples’social preferences to the preferences of others in their social environment is a critical factor unifyingthese different observations in the development of prosociality. We hypothesize that the oppositeassociations between age and SVO observed in two previous studies using unincentivized measuresof social preferences are explained in parts by an age-related change in social desirability, measure-ment inaccuracy (continuous vs. categorical), and cross-cultural differences promoting competitivepreferences among emerging adults in Japan. Moreover, we find that political orientations towardsright-wing populists are consistently associated with less prosocial preferences, while educationseems to be positively associated with prosociality. Overall, our study highlights the importance ofconducting representative studies using incentivized measurements across cultures.

U2 - 10.3390/g12030067

DO - 10.3390/g12030067

M3 - Journal article

VL - 12

JO - Games

JF - Games

SN - 2073-4336

IS - 3

M1 - 67

ER -